hit the button

Because I've been blogging forever (2001), I've been thinking about vlogging forever. Ever since I saw YouTube, I wanted to make YouTube videos. So, since 2005, at least.

But I am not a person who wants to do something and then does it. I don't know how to be that person (tho I'm trying!). Over the years (or _checks notes_ decades), I've dipped my toe in video. I've posted bits and bobs. One month, I made a daily diary. But I didn't make my first YouTube Video™️ until 2022.

Making YouTube Videos™️ is rather hazardous for someone with my kind of brain. It lends itself to too much planning, days lost to procrasti-learning, and then sweating the analytics. As I restart this venture, after the pause that was 2023, I'm thinking about how to do it ~right this time.

1. Start with a stream: live streaming requires a different kind of nerves, but it doesn't require the same amount of prep and post. You just hit the button, and you're making a video. This is how I wrote every essay in college—the first draft had to be the final draft because I never left myself enough time for edits.
2. Set it and (mostly) forget it: for some reason, between the time I did my very first stream in 2021 and this month, I deleted OBS from my Mac. I guess I needed to free up space? So when I sat down at the computer on Thursday morning, I couldn't find the software, and I had also completely forgotten what it was called. But when I downloaded it again, I discovered everything I had set up back then was still saved. I only had to tweak a few settings, and I was ready to stream again.

• For YouTube Videos™️, setting and forgetting means creating templates for editing and thumbnails, as well as establishing filming areas that can live alongside your daily life. The more preparation that you can do once will make every future video easier.

3. Make a schedule (but don't die by the schedule): I work part-time, and I basically spend the rest of my time berating myself for not doing more. All this free time, and I haven't written my book?! I haven't posted on my blog!? I haven't filmed a video??? So then I go into Notion, and I make myself a little schedule. Look at all this time; surely I could do this much work to fill it. That current schedule is one YouTube Video™️ and one stream a week. I teach online on Thursdays, so I picked that day for my stream. To balance, I picked Tuesday to post my video. You maybe noticed I didn't post a video on Tuesday. But I did stream on Thursday. Balance, right?
4. This is 2024; none of the social media rules matter anymore: If you are like me, if you've been thinking about starting for decades, if you think it's too late, I want to grab you by the shoulders and tell you that it's not. Do it, because everything is changing. Even Mr. Beast doesn't know what he's gonna do next. Please stop learning about YouTube hacks (I'm grabbing my own shoulders now). Please turn on your camera and make that video you can't stop thinking about.

And then send me a link so I can like and subscribe.