- So I uploaded my first YouTube video five years ago.
And you won't believe what happened?
Within a week, it got a million views.
I was awarded YouTube's creator of the year
and I became a millionaire overnight.
Okay, so that didn't happen.
What actually happened was totally insignificant,
but at the same time, life changing.
I got eight views.
I made $0.
But I finally overcame years of fear
and procrastination to take my first step
to becoming a full-time creator.
Back when I started out
my dream was to make a full-time living
making videos that I was passionate about.
I just finished making one of my first videos
for my YouTube channel.
In order to do that,
I thought I had to come up with big ideas,
cross my fingers and hope that I'd go viral.
but I had it all wrong.
After years of uploading week after week,
I learned that if you wanna make it as a creative,
whether you wanna be an entrepreneur,
a writer or a filmmaker,
it's more about the small steps that you take every day.
And so in this video, I wanna share the five habits
that almost all successful creators have in common
and the same exact ones that help me
to build my own YouTube channel
and go from zero to 3 million subscribers.
Don't hide from negative feedback.
All right, so I get it.
Negative feedback can be really scary,
no matter how constructive or well-meaning
the criticism may be,
it can feel like a slap in the face with a wet towel,
especially if it's unsolicited or unexpected.
If I'm being honest,
this was my biggest fear as a brand new creator.
What would people say
in the dreaded YouTube comment section?
But I soon realize that the best creators
don't shy away from feedback, they welcome it in.
They use it as an opportunity to grow,
to improve and innovate.
It can give you insights
into what's resonating with your audience and what's not.
This way you can double down on the stuff that's working
or you could pivot if you have to.
The important thing to remember
is that not all feedback is created equally.
Understanding that truth will help you avoid
sleepless nights and unnecessary arguments
with internet trolls.
Opinions are like podcasts, everyone's got one,
but not all of them are worth listening to.
Before taking someone's opinion on board,
there are a couple questions you might wanna ask yourself.
Do I actually trust and respect this person?
Have they achieved something that I want to achieve?
Are they an expert in the area that they're commenting on?
Is this my mom?
Honestly, there's nothing I love more
than a pep talk from my mom
but I might not take her advice
when it comes to my content strategy.
Anonymous comments can sting, that comes with a territory.
But if you can build a healthy relationship with feedback,
it can be a complete game changer
for how you create.
After all how are you supposed to give your audience
what they want if you spend all of your time talking
and none of your time listening.
Focus on the work, not the reward.
It's always nice to get positive feedback,
whether it's in the form of views, comments, or followers.
But if you get too hung up on the approval of others,
it's gonna be difficult to create
from a truly productive place.
Successful creators understand that internet algorithms
are fickle.
Even with over 3 million subscribers,
I see varied results, video to video.
There are so many different things
that might impact your video's performance,
and many of them are outside of your control.
But what is inside of your control
is how often you show up, how often you do the work
and how often you put in practice what you've learned.
It's hard to lose when you find enjoyment
in the process and get a sense of accomplishment
from finishing what you started.
Actor Matthew McConaughey is a big advocate
of finding joy in the process.
- Look, the actual making of a film,
the day to day going to work,
the construction of a film
has always been my favorite thing.
I like making a film much more than like watching them,
enjoying that process, the day to day architecture
of making a movie and creating a role,
that's when I've been the happiest.
- Now you might be thinking,
well that's easy for you to say Matthew McConaughey,
you're getting paid millions of dollars just to be on set.
And to that I say, all right, all right, all right,
all right, all right, all right.
- All right, all right, all right.
- That's the last time I ever try to do an impression
on this channel.
It's not, I'll keep trying.
So I don't think that's completely fair
and I can certainly vouch for my own personal experience
while I'm not making the millions of dollars
that Matthew McConaughey is making.
I can tell you from personal experience
that when I'm making videos
and when I'm creating something,
I'm not focusing on how much money I'm gonna make
from this thing.
I'm focusing on the craft.
I'm focusing on how can I make this as good
as I can possibly make it?
How can I control the light better
so it doesn't change so much in the background.
These are the things that I try to focus on
to make my videos great.
And none of them I intentionally think about,
oh, this is actually gonna make me more money.
Money comes with a territory when you're really great
at what you do.
But if you actually wanna find happiness
and fulfillment from your work,
stop thinking about the money.
Make rest a priority.
Professional athletes consider their rest days
equally as important as their training days
because without proper rest, their bodies and minds
won't be able to perform at their peak.
And if you have any doubts about this fact,
let me ask you this question.
With billions of dollars on the line
from the Olympics to professional athletes,
they need every single edge they can get
to stay on top of their competition.
So if rest wasn't productive,
why would top performers be doing it?
Well, what's true for athletes is also true
for high performing creators.
Too often we treat creativity as a commodity.
Something that can be manufactured on a factory line.
In reality, it's more like a coffee cup
that we need to refill.
If you try to pour from an empty cup,
well you're not gonna get much in return.
If you want your creativity to run at full capacity,
it's important to give yourself the chance to switch off.
And this means setting hard deadlines.
When I first got started on YouTube,
I realized how easy it was to burn myself out
over and over and over again.
So I started this at a cutoff time
for myself every day at 5:30 PM.
This happened to be the same exact time
that Natalie would often get home from work.
And so this forced me to turn off my work
no matter where I was at in the process.
And I had my wife there to keep me accountable
so I wouldn't keep pushing that time back
further and further.
And now, if you're worried
about breaking your flow state, I've got some good news.
According to flow expert, Steven Kotler,
it's far easier to return to unfinished work
than it is to start from a blank canvas.
So leaving your work in progress
is actually a really effective way
to return to a flow state much quicker the next day.
When you're your own boss, there's always more to do.
Your work is never finished.
So it's really up to you to set off those cutoff times
and figure out how to take breaks
and how to do them consistently.
Because if you don't choose a time to rest,
your body will choose one for you.
Do your most important work first.
The idea that you have to wake up before the sun
to be productive is a complete myth.
While it might work for some people
and it certainly works for me,
plenty of the world's most iconic creatives
have been night owls,
including Prince, JRR Tolkin, and Bob Dylan.
But there is something to be said
of seizing the first few hours of work.
And it has less to do with the exact time of day
and more to do with striking while the iron is hot.
Regardless of whether you wake up at 6:00 AM or 12:00 PM,
your job every day is to eat the frog, first thing.
This phrase which you might have heard me say before
was first pulled into the productivity world by Brian Tracy
and is based on a quote from Mark Twain.
"If the first thing you do each morning
is to eat a live frog,
you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing
that it is probably the worst thing that is going to happen
to you all day long."
Eating the frog here really means
doing your most challenging and important work first.
And there are two key reasons why this strategy
is so effective.
One, prioritizing your most important work first
means that your day will always be a win
no matter what else happens or doesn't happen.
It also means that you can create from a fresh canvas
before emails and Slack messages and meetings
seep into your day and drain your energy
and distract you from what you actually should be doing.
So if you can find a way
to get your creative work done first thing,
you'll reap so many benefits,
even if it means going back to bed immediately after.
But I recommend that you don't do that.
Treat content creation like a habit.
Have you ever wondered how some people
post Instagram multiple times a day,
while you can barely remember your password?
It's likely because successful creators
treat content creation like a habit.
Yes, it may sound a little bit meta.
It might not even make sense to make a habit out of a habit
but the point is content creation isn't just something
that you should do when you feel inspired.
It should be a non-negotiable part of your daily routine,
just like brushing your teeth, making your bed,
or doing bicep curls.
Just me.
The best content creators know that inspiration
is fleeting and completely unreliable.
So they don't wait around to feel creative
before they create.
In fact, the exact opposite is true.
They find creativity in the structure
that they've established for themselves.
Stephen King writes every day, rain, hail or shine.
- There is something I want to ask you.
- All right.
- How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?
- The way that I work, I try to get out there
and I try to get six pages a day.
And I work, when I'm working, I work every day,
three, four hours
and I try to get those six pages
and I try to get it fairly clean.
- He doesn't wait until he's got a good idea
or until he's in the mood to write.
No, every single day he sits down at his desk
and he writes day after day.
That's how he's so prolific.
That's how he writes so many books.
That's how he's gotten so great at his craft.
And so regardless of your craft,
you should also set a limit and do the same.
How can you make your creativity a habit?
So if I were to add a sixth habit to this list,
a bonus habit, if you will,
it'd be to make a habit of investing back into yourself.
From the day that I got started as a creator,
I continued to invest back into my skills.
I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it by myself.
So I invested in gear and people and courses
that helped me to up the production quality of my videos
and saved me a ton of time,
which is exactly why I built my YouTube course.
And luckily for you, my course is now open for enrollment
for a limited time.
Introducing Master YouTube,
your roadmap for creating a successful channel
with integrity.
In this course, you won't find any clickbait tactics
or gimmicks that don't actually teach you
how to make great videos.
By taking this course,
I'll show you a process for how to make great videos
from scratch, all the way from brainstorming to publish.
You'll learn how to come up with original ideas.
I'll show you exactly how to turn those ideas
into a compelling script.
Even if you're starting out with the smartphone,
you'll learn the foundational elements
of how to film yourself on camera
and how to do it on a budget.
This literally cost about $25.
I'll introduce you to a process
for how to edit your videos twice as fast
no matter what application you choose to edit from.
The idea here is that we want to take that main storyline
that we worked on in our script.
And we wanna bring that into our project timeline.
Making amazing videos is just one part of the puzzle.
How do you make a compelling thumbnail?
How do you workshop titles?
How do you break through the noise?
And how do you do all of that without clickbait?
We've had thousands of students join the course
since we first opened it up
and the results have been amazing.
- So four months ago I had just under 1000 subscribers.
And four months later, I've got over 33,000 subscribers.
And I put pretty much all of that down
to doing the Master YouTube course.
- For me to purchase this course was quite a big thing.
And it was the best decision I made in 2021.
- I have been through several courses,
several YouTube courses, in fact,
and this one by far has the best production.
And let me tell you, he over delivers.
- Yes, my channel's grown.
Yes, I'm monetized now, which is wonderful.
But none of that matters as much as the fact
that I now feel confident and excited
for every video I make.
- Master YouTube is only open for enrollment
for the next couple of days.
And then it closes on April 26th.
And so if you wanna kickstart your YouTube journey,
if you've been struggling to build momentum,
go to slowgrowth.com/MasterYouTube to learn more
or click the link down in the description below this video.
Regardless of whether you joined me this time around or not,
I wanna thank you so much for watching my videos.
It truly means the world to me.
Being able to connect with you,
to get feedback from you, to hear from you and the comments,
and to go on this journey together with you
has been truly the joy of my life.
So thank you so much for watching
and I will catch you next time.
Yeah.