So in this video I want to talk about what's been going on over the past two months
But really what's happened over the past two years of my life and what it's taught me
About slowing the fuck down
*Slow music with a drum and piano track*
So if you are
lucky enough to have found something that you really care about something that you're passionate about something that you're willing to dedicate your life to
You know that the lines blur between your personal life and your work life
when you find that one thing that you really are willing to focus and dedicate on it's hard to say no to it and
that's what happened when I found filmmaking over 15 years ago and more specifically when I started making original films on this channel
In the beginning I was grinding because I had to, but eventually I was doing it because I thought I had to
I uploaded my first video two years ago.
[recording of old video]: Hey guys, what's going on? My name is Matt D'Avella
I'm a documentary filmmaker, and this is my new youtube channel.
[Back to present day] When I made that video I didn't have a grand plan or vision. I had no idea where it was gonna take me
That doesn't make any sense. (whispered) That doesn't make any sense.
I just asked myself one question: if I could do anything right now regardless of money what would I do?
If I won the lottery and you can do this yourself, imagine yourself right now
You won the lottery. You've got millions of dollars in the bank account. What do you do with your life?
Do you continue to do what you're doing right now. If you say yes, that's amazing. Congratulations.
If you say no then I think you need to start thinking about where you want to take your life
And that's exactly what I did I said, okay
Listen, this is, I mean, I'm happy like I was living a great life
I was a freelance filmmaker, but I said I wanted another challenge, if I truly had all the money in the world
I wouldn't continue to make films on a freelance basis.
So I took my first step. I started a podcast, made videos, created content for every social media platform.
This is something new, I'm not sure where to look.
I'm not sure what to do with my hands. While simultaneously creating films for my freelance clients
it was an all-out sprint and I didn't see much progress early on.
And then I would say it was about six months into it that I completely stopped client work
And that's where shit got really serious. That's when I realized, okay
I have a finite amount of time because right now, I was conservative with it
I saved up enough money to give me some, some space some, some time that I wouldn't have to stress out about money
but still, if a year went by and I didn't
start mak- If I couldn't start making money from this then I would be in big trouble and I would likely have to quit
and go back to doing freelance. So that meant I had to work my fucking ass off.
I had to work really hard. I had to put my head down, make podcasts connect with people, network
I had to start making more and more videos
I was dedicated to making this work
And then I had my first video truly take off which was a video called: My Minimalist Apartment
[From the video] When we have more guests over we bring out the paper plates
But lucky for us we don't have any friends.
[Present day] I had never seen a video take off in the way that this one did. Eventually it hit a million views and
It became simultaneously
more fun and more stressful.
So, it was more fun because I started to realize: I can do this, this is happening
I'm gonna be able to make a career out of this
but then it was more stressful in that I felt like
When am I gonna stop? I remember having a conversation with Natalie
We were sitting up late one night and she couldn't understand why I was feeling this way. She was like, what is it?
Isn't it just all great? And then it just clicked with her. She's like, oh my god, you have to do this forever.
Like, you can't stop you have to make a video every week. You have to make a podcast every week
And that's how I felt and in the same way a lot of people get caught up in the rat race of the nine-to-five
It's just as easy to get caught up in the rat race of being an online creator or a freelancer or running your own thing
Once you've found success you think the only way to keep it is to continue to work your face off
[Recording] Check, One two, this is a test. I'm super fucking tired
[Present day] I wouldn't say I was close to burning out, but I was definitely heading in that direction
As I look back over the past two months when this channel saw an insane amount of growth
I was essentially putting out an 8 minute documentary every Monday. There wasn't one weekend
I didn't work . The most difficult part of all is that I love my work. It fuels me and inspires me more than anything.
But keeping up this pace this all-out sprint
was never a part of the plan and it takes stepping back and looking at the big picture to realize
that you can slow down [slow music fades in]
This doesn't mean that you or I need to stop caring about the work
we do. It means we understand that there are things that aren't worth sacrificing.
Like your health and sanity, you can't forget them because that's the whole reason
why we do this. To be able to have a balanced life to be able to have autonomy and freedom
And if you let yourself become your own worst boss
Then you're gonna burn out and you're not going to be able to maintain any amount of consistency with the work you create
Thanks for watching
Learn how I make my videos get useful tips on living a balanced life and support this ad-free youtube channel at
patreon.com/mattdavella. It's because of patrons that I'm able to slow down, create more intentionally and make films full time
Thanks so much for your support.
So I'm not even joking
I just bought this grey backdrop and then I set everything up the lights the camera, tweaking doing all this work and then I did
a test shoot and I realized that I bought the same color backdrop as the only
y-shirt that I have. So when I did the test I was literally just a floating head on the screen
It didn't, didn't look good. So I just put the hoodie on. Problem solved.