- Okay, so here's the thing with how to make a vlog.
There's no definitive guide, there's no rule book,
there's no blanket statements, there's no,
"Do these things, and you will make successful vlogs
that everyone loves, that are tons of fun."
That doesn't exist.
It solely depends on you.
Your personality is more important
than doing things like jumping out of a plane,
or doing fun things like ripping a Lamborghini around
a racetrack in Monaco.
Those are all awesome things to do,
and they make great vlog content,
but you take the person out of that situation,
that is the vlogger,
you take the vlogger out of those fun scenarios,
and all you have is just an emotionless commercial
that you just flip through on TV.
If you look at it this way,
picture just a random TV commercial, right?
Let's just say it's some dude riding a Sea-doo around
and whatever, just showing off this new 2018 model,
and it's, "Ahhh."
Nobody cares, you flip through it, you forget about it,
the day goes on, you don't give that another second thought
until maybe you see it again on a rerun.
But you throw your favorite vlogger on that Sea-Doo
and now watch the commercial, it's totally different.
And it's not because
your favorite vlogger is riding a Sea-Doo,
it's because that's your favorite vlogger,
and you're interested in that person,
you're interested in what she's doing,
you're interested in what he's doing,
not the fact that it's a Sea-Doo.
So the giant misconception that I feel is people
don't wanna start vlogs cause they think to themselves,
"I don't have an interesting enough life to vlog,
I don't do fun things like that,
I don't travel, I live in the middle of nowhere."
But those are all things that do not matter,
because you are the story.
That's point number one.
You're the story.
If all you have to do for the day is clean out your garage,
make that the vlog.
Does that sound familiar?
I did an entire episode which took like
five minutes of me just cleaning out my garage,
and I did see a lot of comments
of people saying things like,
"I just watched this dude clean out his garage
for like five minutes, and I couldn't look away."
And I had the same thing.
I had tons of fun editing that sequence.
Is that me skydiving out of a military cargo plane?
No, but that would be amazing.
But it was still entertaining
because I just took what I had in my environment.
That's my life, and that's what I'm sharing.
So that's the story that I had to tell that day.
What's your story? Where do you live?
How can you make it work for you?
Do you live near a lake, do you live on a mountain,
do you live in the middle of nowhere?
Do you hate where you live?
Then make that the theme, make that a joke,
just show your environment,
because you're the product, you're the brand,
you are what people are coming to watch,
not the things you're doing.
That's often why a lot of us get together,
we talk about vlogs and projects and collaborations,
and, "Oh how's your channel,"
and, "What are you up to?
Do you got any cool stuff going on?"
And we often always say it's funny,
you could put so much work into a video
to make it the most insane thing you've ever done,
but then you can just throw up a video
like this talking about how to make a vlog,
and that might do 1,000 times better
than ripping Porches through the Swiss Alps.
So remember that you are the story.
The second point that I have is,
share what you love.
Beside the fact that you're making your life the story,
you gotta share the things that you love,
because those become integral parts to
the story that you're telling through your vlog.
Example.
Coffee is something that I love,
and I share that through many episodes of my vlogs,
with my tutorials, et cetera.
Now coffee has become almost like its own product,
its own character, its own little cameo in my episodes,
to the point where when I don't include it in an episode,
people actually ask me, "You didn't drink any coffee today,"
because it's become something that people are used to.
Think of it like a TV show, right,
your favorite characters sometimes reoccur
or they pop up in different episodes,
and maybe they're not in it for two episodes,
but when they come back people are like,
"Yes, Tony Almeida is back, oh I love that guy."
Maybe sharing what you love is tutorial, maybe it's not.
Maybe you love art, you don't necessarily know how to paint,
but it's a huge passion.
So you might say,
"How am I gonna share that in an interesting way?"
Well maybe talk about your favorite paintings,
why they're your favorite, who painted them
and the story behind the painting.
There's a story right there, there's an entire episode.
Maybe the next episode is you going
to a gallery to check out some paintings
and talk about five pieces that you love
and five pieces that you do not love.
It's all about taking those things that you're interested in
and just putting them out there.
People will automatically become interested in those things
because you're interested in those things.
I guarantee you that a lot of the people watching this vlog
might not even drink coffee, don't even like coffee,
have never even tried coffee
and have no plans to drink coffee,
but they still get a kick out of
when I include it in my episodes,
maybe in a funny way or talk about
how many coffees I've had that day,
because we've developed a relationship, you and me.
We're kinda like buddies now, like we're friends.
You guys see me on a weekly basis,
we chat through the comments,
you see my videos that I put up.
You know the things that I like,
I know the things you don't like
based off the comments as well,
but those things in my vlog have now become part of
what's expected and what's enjoyed and shared by everyone,
because I've shared them with you.
So share what you love.
Maybe it's skateboarding,
maybe it's snowboarding and sports,
maybe it's an instrument that you play,
maybe you teach how to play instruments.
It could be anything at all.
I'm just trying to get you guys over that hump,
that a lot of people don't even begin to vlog
because of that barrier of,
"I don't have an interesting life."
But you do. You're the story. Share what you love.
And the third point is, make a plan.
Have a plan.
Don't just set off into the world with your camera
and be like, "Whatever happens today, happens."
Now spontaneity, that's a thing of it's own,
and that can be great sometimes,
but at the same time it can be detrimental.
Your vlog can just become a mess.
If your vlog just becomes like a planless timeline of
chronicled events throughout the day,
it just ends up being like you're
taking people on your chores with you.
It just becomes like, "Hey, I'm filling up my gas tank."
So you don't want it to just be like a procedural,
"Hey now I'm at the grocery store.
Now I'm going downtown in traffic."
Maybe that is your thing
and you spin it to make it work for you,
and I'd love to see it, but having a plan,
just like people write a script
or have a storyboard for a larger project,
if you have an overall idea,
it doesn't even have to be the most
convoluted, super meticulous planned out thing,
but even just like a theme idea.
"Today, I wanna talk about how to vlog.
I'm gonna go here, I'm gonna go here,
I'm gonna hook up with Maddie,
we're gonna skateboard for a little bit,
I need to go to the post office,
I need to hit these places in order to deliver
the content that I have in my head properly and well."
If you just wander around and try to make it happen,
yes that works, I've done it, you can do it,
but it's not as enjoyable for your audience to watch,
and more importantly it's not fun for you to make.
It's not a good time when you're struggling through the day
trying to vlog, and you're thinking to yourself,
"This is just not working.
This guy didn't show up, I don't know where to go,
it's too sunny out now, my B-roll looks like nonsense,
I can't find my drone here,"
and then you start to get frustrated,
and that's not what the vlog is about.
It's all about having fun.
If we had to make a fourth point,
overall I would say forget everything else,
and just remember to have a good time.
Sharing should be fun.
Sharing the skills you have to help other people,
sharing your own passion,
sharing the relationships that you have in your life,
and comedy, and humor, and sad moments, and fun moments,
and taking people on a ride just like a movie or a TV show.
It should be fun.
It should be fun to make, it should be fun to shoot,
it should be fun to share,
and if any of those things are not happening,
something is not working and you need to correct it.
So how to vlog.
Ultimately I would say you already know how.
Just go out, have a good time, and keep the camera rolling.
So that's it for me today, guys.
I hope you enjoyed that video,
I hope you get out there and start vlogging.
Tag me in your vlogs, find me on Twitter,
find me on Instagram,
I'd love to watch the stuff you guys are doing.
And as a little bonus tip, just know that it's still even
awkward for people like me vlogging in public sometimes.
There's just something weird about it,
and you just gotta get over it.
Just do it.
It's something that you love,
so just go out there and do it.
And if people ask what you're doing,
share the passion, vlog it, make it a part of the episode,
make it work for you, alright, you got this.
Thank you so much for watching.
Hit that like button if you liked this video.
Smash it, if you so desire.
I know there's people out there who love to smash it,
and I'm fully on board with doing that.
Subscribe if you aren't already,
and we'll see you guys in the next episode.
(coffee pouring)