Are you in a YouTube rut? And you just can't get yourself to film no matter how hard you try
I actually am also in a YouTube rut and it's been really, really frustrating
for me because I just want to make all of these amazing videos. So I thought,
Hey, why don't I just sit down and record and tell you guys what I've been doing to get out
of YouTube rut. Because trust me, whether you're a big YouTuber or a small YouTuber,
you will get in a rut at times. , t is normal. So let's jump right into it.
So ever since I had my baby, I've kind of been in a rut when it comes to so YouTube
and it's been really, really frustrating because I am not filming as many videos as I want to,
I feel like I don't have ideas for videos and just the whole thought of filming YouTube videos
just puts a lot of pressure on me and that's not normal and that's normally not me. And so, yeah,
I'm in a rut. I admit I'm in a rut! and you know what? That's okay. So I think that leads into my
very first tip when you're in a YouTube rut. And that's just to acknowledge it. I think by actually
putting a name on how you're feeling, that's going to help you be able to process that and then work
through that. So that way you're not stuck in a rut forever/ no one wants to be in a rut.
And so just acknowledge, "Hey, I'm in a rut." And for me,
as soon as I realized that it made everything okay. So for me, the cause of my YouTube rut,
which I was able to pinpoint was the fact that I wasn't feeling very prepared for my videos. And
that led to a lot of stress on filming day because I didn't feel prepared and I felt like I wasn't
being super productive and maximizing my filming time. I have three little kids that are four,
two and three months old. And so my filming time is super, super precious. And because
I wasn't a hundred percent prepared for my filming days, I felt like I was wasting my
filming days here. I had a babysitter for my kids and it was filming day and I didn't even have my
scripts ready. I didn't even have my videos ready and that was creating a lot of stress.
So I would either film one or even zero videos. And then I kind of just felt like a failure
as a result of that. So that was my cause is I just, wasn't feeling super productive and that
I was maximizing my time. And with that, I was letting that affect me and how I felt about myself
as a content creator. I didn't attach any sort of feeling or value to being in a rut. It was just
a state of being, it doesn't mean I'm a bad person. It doesn't mean I'm a bad YouTuber.
It just means I'm in a rut. That's okay. But once you acknowledge that you're in a rut, you need to
drill down even further because that's a symptom that is not the cause. The symptom is the feeling
I'm feeling in a rut, right? So you need to drill down. Why are you feeling that you're in a rut?
Is it because you are bored of your topic? Are you feeling super stressed when it comes to filming or
editing your videos or maybe the videos aren't doing as well as you thought they were. They're
not getting views. You're not making money. Those can all be reasons why you're in a rut. And each
one of those reasons will have different ways that you can combat that. If your videos aren't getting
any views, the action plan that you're going to take for that is going to be totally different
is if you're just feeling bored of the videos that you're making, right? So that is step number
two is to pinpoint the cause. Now once you've pinpointed the cause before you do anything before
you try to tackle that and get ahead of it and get out of that rut, I want you to free yourself,
just free yourself, of any expectations that you may be having about your YouTube channel.
So for me, I had these expectations of what filming day was supposed to be like
and how prepared I was supposed to be. And if I didn't live up to those expectations,
I just felt really crappy. And that's what led to my rut. And so what I did is I just
let those expectations go. I associated no feelings to those. Okay. You didn't film
that's okay. You're still a great person. You're still a great content creator. That's okay. Just
free yourself and let go of those expectations. And that really, I think can be one of the big
things for any of these is having expectations that aren't met. So let go of your expectations.
I'm not saying to drop your standards or to quit, but the expectations and then not reaching those
expectations is going to create this gap. That's going to make you feel like you're in a rut.
That you're really sad that you're a failure. So if we can just close that gap and there is no gap
you're going to feel really, really good. So once I went through this exercise, I started to feel
a lot better about YouTube. I decided, okay, you know what, it's fine. You have three little kids,
you have a newborn at home. It's okay. That right now in this season of life,
that I'm not this crazy efficient, productive YouTuber. And I also pinpointed a secondary
reason why I wasn't just loving the videos that I was making. And it was because the topic,
like, I feel like I've talked a whole bunch about YouTube and there's still so much more
that I can talk about YouTube, but I want to talk about other things. And I want to
kind of change the style of my videos. I want to maybe experiment with vlog style.
I think because I was feeling a little bit of apprehension about having to
shift and change and learn new things. Obviously there was a little bit of fear there and so,
okay. I'm just going to go back to what I know what's comfortable. And then I wasn't
really feeling very fulfilled because I knew I wanted something more. So the next thing
that I recommend, and this is what I did was I kind of threw everything out the window,
even though I have a giant master list of all of these different content ideas and video
ideas, I just wasn't feeling them. And so what I did is I scratched that
I didn't delete them because I do maybe want to go back to them at some point. But instead I just
started writing down different video ideas that I wanted to make as I was doing this exercise.
Any video idea that came to mind, I wrote down as I was doing this exercise, I didn't label any of
these as this is a good idea. This is a bad idea. This is one of my content pillars, or this is not,
it was just, Hey, here's a video idea. Go, go, go, go. Then once I looked at that list, I kind of
felt a lot more inspired. Some of them, obviously I'm not going to do, but some I was really
inspired to do. And that's okay. So maybe this is a direction that I want to go in my channel.
So if you're in a YouTube rut, I highly recommend doing this. This is one of my favorite favorite
activities to not only get out of a rut, but just to come up with video ideas, you just sit down,
you put a timer on for 15 minutes and then you just go. I actually have a video all about this
topic of how I come up with video ideas and I dive into this specific process even more.
So be sure to check that video out. So with this new list,
I picked a few ideas that really lit me up and I made sure that they weren't
totally random that my subscribers would still be interested in them, but I didn't have to
limit myself to the type of videos that I'd been making in the past. What you did in the past,
doesn't necessarily have to dictate what you do in the future. So through this activity,
I realized, you know what? I want to show it more, a little bit about my life. I don't want
this to be like a full-on vlog channel. Although I think that would be fun. And I would love to
do a vlog channel in the future. If you go to see a separate vlog channel, let me know cause
I'm interested. I don't know. I don't think my life's that cool, but you tell me, but it
helped me realize that I want to expand into the different areas that content creators suffer with.
So ideas like running an online business and just things like that. So I'm going to expand some
of the topics that I have been doing, and that makes me really, really excited. So that alone,
just this little pivot in my mind, kind of freed me from this rut suddenly it was like,
"I'm stressed that I'm not making videos." It was just this big cycle
to "I am so excited to make videos." So that is one of my big suggestions is that after you
figured this all out is to pivot to change, do something. That's going to get you out of that.
Rut. Don't keep doing what you have been doing because most likely you're going to keep feeling
the way that you've been feeling. You got to change something and it may be hard. It may
be new. It may be scary. And I'm not saying to completely change the topics of your channel.
That's just what happened for me. But whatever you do decide that helps you pivot. It should
light you up. You should feel lighter and you should feel free. Because for me, once I decided
this was what I wanted to do, I definitely felt a lot better. And I finally was excited to make
videos again. And then my last tip when you're in a rut is once you have this new direction,
just don't delay it any more while you're still amped and excited, start filming, do the thing,
film the video, change the topic, do something new experiment, whatever it is, do that thing and see
how you feel after doing one video or a few videos in that way. For me, this is the exact process
that I follow to get out of this little mini YouTube rut. And it's just really, really crazy
how night and day I feel about my channel just by simply going through this simple exercise.
So I'm curious, let me know in the comments, what you do when you are in a rut and also be sure to
check out this video right here. This one where I break down my process to come up with video ideas.
That's all I have for today. And I'll see you next time. I may like this sweater, but who it's
a hundred degrees outside? What was I thinking? Sweating like a pig I wrote down, it was eight.
This rogue light. I feel like midway through every single video. It just,
the sweat is dripping down the back. Apprehension mmm hmmm.