- Shout out to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video.
Hey YouTube world, it's me, Evelyn.
Here's the truth, here's the truth.
Come closer, come closer.
All the video ideas I had
required just a little too much effort
for what I'm trying to do today.
(channel beeps) We're in a bit of a conundrum,
aren't we ?
So first we're just gonna blow off some steam, okay?
We're gonna play a game that I like to call
Stock Music Karaoke.
I'm gonna go on YouTube's free audio library.
It's a database of free songs that you can use
in your YouTube videos.
And I just like to go through them
and to press play
and see what they're giving me.
So we're gonna do that
and then get to the message (laughs).
(water droplet blipping)
if there is one. (air whooshing)
Tonight at nine,
why millennials are depressed (laughs)
They should just pick themselves up
by their bootstraps (breaking news music)
and get to work.
ABC, news you can trust.
(energetic bluegrass music)
Can't relate, can't relate.
Okay.
Come on down to Cracker Barrel,
where the gravy is smooth
and the racism is, too (laughs).
Welcome to my podcast about science (laughs).
On this episode of Radio Lab,
we're gonna talk about how neurons
(mysterious electronic music) smash.
Okay. (modulating electronic music)
Now with the new Gatorade powder,
you can drink and quench.
Trust me,
I'm Steph Curry.
Gatorade powder,
with 17 essential amino acids (laughs),
no sugar.
With Disney Plus, (happy acoustic music)
you can watch all your favorites
whenever you want.
It's fun for everyone,
for the whole family to enjoy.
Disney Plus.
Are you looking for black singles in your area (laughs)?
Blacksingles.com (mellow R and B music)
we've been expecting you. (channel beeps)
(clears throat) All right, so,
do I take this off, oww.
Everybody has creative blocks,
no matter what your medium is.
But I want to make the case for completing things.
This is going out to all of you
who have not completed a YouTube video,
who have not finished that short story,
that drawing, that song.
I see you with GarageBand opened up, okay.
Your guitar is dusty.
But here's the case I make for finishing things,
three simple concepts.
Number one, every time you finish something,
you have successfully kept a promise to yourself.
Now the act of keeping a promise,
when you're keeping promises to other people,
is it helps build your relationship, right?
If you tell someone you're gonna do something
and you follow through,
it makes them trust you,
it makes them see you as a reliable person,
it makes people wanna come to you.
It lets people know they can count on you, right?
Your relationship with yourself is no different.
And so when you venture out
to do some sort of creative work,
which is very difficult,
the act of creativity is making something out of nothing
or making something new out of references, right?
So I'm not saying it's easy by any means.
I'm just saying that when you finish something,
#irregardless of whether it's good or not
or whether it's up to your standards, your satisfaction,
there's just something so cathartic
about when the clock runs out and you turn it in.
So we've all taken tests,
and sometimes you know you failed.
You know.
But the clock ran out and you turned it in.
And guess what?
If you feel like studying next time, you will.
But it's done and you can move on.
'Cause here's the thing,
when you don't finish anything,
you can never move on, technically.
So finish something
so that you can keep a promise to yourself
and build that self-trust.
You can build that relationship with yourself that says
"Self, I know you to be someone who follows through.
"I know you to be someone who sticks with it."
Finishing something can mean also trashing it entirely.
But I think what a lot of us do
is we start something,
and we just like marinate there forever.
And that's how you have someone
that's been working on a web series for seven years.
Building that self-trust is also important
if you ever hope to work with someone else and collaborate,
because how can you work with someone else
when you don't even know how to work with yourself?
You have to be able to trust your ideas
or trust your vision,
or trust your way of doing things,
or trust that you will just stick to it
until it's done.
Number two, the second reason why you should finish things
is because you can only edit what exists.
People don't like this one.
People really don't like this one.
I hate it from time to time.
You literally cannot fix
what hasn't been made yet.
So if you have writer's block,
guess what you can't fix?
A blank page.
But if you just brain-dump and word-vomit,
later on you can go back and be like,
eww, delete, eww, drag and drop.
When you finish things,
you have a better picture of the entire process,
so that next time you know
your stumbling blocks, your roadblocks,
you know the things that you have difficulties with,
you know the things that you're actually really good at
and kinda comes naturally to you.
I always talk about asking specific questions
so that you can get specific help,
and the only way you'll know that
is if you've gone through the process
and seen your gaps in knowledge
or gaps in understanding.
So if you wanna make a YouTube channel,
I would say make a YouTube video.
I didn't say anything about posting the video,
but you haven't even made a video yet.
So how can you talk to me about a YouTube channel
when you don't have the video yet?
Do you even like making videos?
What do you like about it?
So you have to go through the process
of finishing something,
being involved in something from start to finish
in order to do it better next time.
Number three (laughs),
when you finish something,
it humbles you, okay?
And it gives you enough knowledge
to help you stop comparing yourself to others.
How many of y'all right now watching this
would like to be authors,
and you're comparing yourself
to someone who already has a book?
Lemme know, because that doesn't make any sense.
How can you,
someone who has nothing, has nothing,
has a couple paragraphs,
how can you compare yourself
to someone who has finished something?
You have no respect or appreciation
for what that person has actually accomplished.
You're just jealous of where they are.
I'm not immune, I'm not immune.
When you finish something,
this goes back to my second point,
when you finish something,
you have the knowledge of what it takes, right?
And thusly, number three, it'll humble you,
and be like, "Hey, I am not bigger than this process.
"I am not above doing the work
"that this particular craft
"or this particular problem requires me to do."
And as such,
I now have a much larger appreciation
for people who are doing this on a bigger scale,
for people who are doing this
maybe with less money than I have.
You know how many people
got bank for video equipment
but don't have nothin' to say?
If there's somebody who's work you admire,
somebody who you often, you know, you hate-scroll,
you hate-tap through they Instagram stories (laughs),
am I willing to put in the work
that they're putting in?
Or have I not finished a goddamn thing
and I'm hatin' from outside the club?
Finishing things helps you not be a hater.
All right, so boom.
Those three concepts have really helped me
to kinda shift some of the negative beliefs I have
in my life about my work,
where I wanna go in life,
the things I consume,
the things I say to myself,
and I hope that it helps you too.
(upbeat big band music)
Shout out to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video.
I've been a customer for years,
and I'll let voiceover Evelyn explain why.
(air whooshing) Squarespace gives you
a powerful and beautiful online platform
to create your own website.
I use it as a landing page
where you can learn more about me, what I do,
and how we can work together.
There are blogging tools that allow you to share
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Squarespace email campaigns to help your business stand out.
And if you scroll to the bottom of my website
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Visit squarespace.com for a free trial,
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So yeah, that was a little real talk with Evelyn, okay,
something light, a light bite.
Hope this video helped,
and I will see you on the internet somewhere, bye.