How I Turned My YouTube Channel Into A Full-Time Job
People Want to Hear Your Opinion
I uploaded my first YouTube video in 2007. 14 years ago. At the time I never had any intentions of making it a primary source of income. I didn’t even know that was possible back then.
Since then, I’ve built my first channel to close to 300,000 subscribers and over 33 million views. Over 80% of those numbers generated within the last 2 years.
I’m now building a second channel using what I learned from building the first one. Sort of as an experiment.
I want to share my journey with you of how I make a living by creating videos about topics I love. This is possible for anyone willing to put in the time.
Looking back at my early videos from a decade ago I’m surprised I even got a couple of hundred views because the videos are so bad. Extremely low quality in pretty much all aspects of production and energy.
But I keep them up there to show what it looks like starting out. You can have a look at one of them here. Prepare to cringe.
I want you to keep this in mind. No one starts out great. Everyone was once a beginner.
I’m not saying I have it figured out. However, I do know what’s worked for me after years of throwing stuff on the wall to see what sticks.
It feels like all this has to come crashing down at any moment which makes me obsessed with always making better videos — improving, tweaking, analyzing. It never stops. It shouldn’t.
I always want to feel like I’m just getting started. If I’m getting too comfortable doing something I need to find a way to make it challenging and uncomfortable or else I get sloppy. Comfort kills.
Over the years I’ve been jumping from one thing to another, chasing a bunch of shiny objects desperately wanting to make an income online doing what I love. I think most people do when they let go of the false security of a 9–5 job. Trying to find that magic pill.
What I’ve learned is that there is no magic pill. There is no cutting corners. All that matters is relentless effort over a long period of time.
Keep in mind that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. That means that the content you put up today might take off in a year or two once your keywords are ranked properly. Every video you create is an asset.
This is why it’s so important to create a channel and produce videos about something you love to talk about and share. It’s going to take a long time to build up the momentum but if you stay consistent and if keep tweaking your content based on data, you’ll get there.
Some of the projects I’ve been a part of have been successful, some have been complete disasters. They’ve all been educational and memorable however the successful ones all have one thing in common. Passion.
I realized quite recently that I always come back to my core whether I want to or not.
The core in my case is design, cars, writing and teaching.
If you have a passion for something, if you feel like it’s something you’re being pulled to rather than pushed towards, pursue it.
I think we all have that something.
It might be lost and buried by decades of obligations and responsibilities but if you look deep enough, you’ll find it.
From there, all you have to do is dedicate a decade of your life to not only becoming better at it but equally as important — sharing it. A decade of daily content. This doesn’t mean you have to produce a YouTube video every day, but you need to show up every day. Do one thing daily that moves you closer to your goal.
Simple? Yes. Easy? No.
What does that mean? It’s simple but not easy?
It means that if you dedicate a decade of your life to building something around your passion, you will most likely succeed in turning that into a business.
It’s simple. But it’s not easy because your mind will play tricks on you. Throw a bunch of “what-ifs” at you.
What if you put it all this time with no result? What if you waste a decade?
That’s literally an impossible outcome. You won’t be in the same place you started after a decade of continuous effort and more importantly, you won’t be the same person if you’ve stuck with it. You won’t recognize the person you were.
You’ll become a productivity beast. The work becomes a habit. You’ll miss it. You’ll need it.
Now you’ve built this productivity habit that you can adjust, tweak and aim like a laser beam in any direction you like and this happens all the time throughout the decade.
When you find something that works your productivity and focus is aimed and amplified in that direction while still working within your passion and core.
If the content is educational — great. If it’s entertaining — awesome. If it’s inspiring — fantastic. If it’s all of the above — you got yourself a winning concept.
As a design sketching instructor, I get a lot of questions on a daily basis from students, trying to figure out what direction to go in.
This story is to show you that first of all, time goes a lot quicker than you think. Second, you have an infinite number of directions you can go in life and you don’t have to follow a system that wasn’t designed for you.
The sooner you start the sooner you’ll see results and when you start to see results your doubts will become weaker and your motivation stronger.
This life is a game. You decide how to play it. Your rules or someone else’s — it’s up to you.
I respect both ways.
But if you’re like me and you’ve always had that deep desire to create and build something based on what you’re passionate about, just know that it’s possible.
You just have to set up a long term goal, construct a plan and then work a lot harder for a lot less for a long time.
Watch my video below where I share why you need to start a YouTube channel this year, I think it will help you out.
