 One of my favorite quotes ever is if you want what I have, you got to do what I do. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about helping people with their mental health. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. But right now you might be thinking, oh, but Chris, you're talking about 10 license you learned to get to 20,000 subscribers. What's that got to do with mental health? I don't know if you've been paying attention or not, but if you look around at YouTubers lately, they are losing their minds. So sometimes I like to make videos to help my fellow creators out. And I want to talk about things that I've learned on my path to 20,000 subscribers. And before I do that, I want to thank each and every one of you beautiful people out there who have clicked that subscribe button, even more so for those of you who have clicked that notification bell, because you care about mental health. And whether it's improving yours or just educating yourself or decreasing the stigma, whatever it is, I love each and every one of you so, so, so much. So yeah, without further ado, these are 10 things that I've learned on my road to 20,000 subscribers. And even if you're not a YouTube creator or even think about starting a YouTube channel, I truly believe that some of these things that I learned might be able to help you just in life or in the workplace in general. So tip number one, or lesson number one rather, is something that I still work on every single day, which is focus on your own race. It is so easy for me to compare myself to other people and where other people are. There's a saying where it's like, don't compare yourself to where you are today based on where someone else is today. Compare yourself to where you were yesterday, right? Like, I was literally just whining to Tristan this morning, just going through YouTube and checking out other channels or what YouTube recommends to me. I'll just send Tristan screenshots. I'm like, how does this person get more views than I do? And it just blows my mind. Like, she brings me back down and she's like, yo, worry about your own race. You know what I mean? But she also tells me it reminds me to be grateful for every single viewer and subscriber that I have. So you got to focus on your own race. I've talked about this in other videos. We're like, YouTubers have quit because they look at the success of other people. Focus on your own race and what you are doing. Lesson number two, connect to your audience. Like, this is huge. If you look at what I do, I try to reply to as many of the comments as possible, or at least heard them just to kind of show that I did read it, right? Because sometimes I just don't have the words to say. But like, it's important. Like, I think that's one of the huge things. Here's a little side tip for anybody who is on YouTube. Like, when I was smaller and as I was growing, like, if anybody left a comment, I would always remind them to subscribe. I'm like, hey, might want to subscribe. And it worked. I swear to you, it worked like 90% of the time. But I think it's important to be grateful because something I've talked about is this disconnect that I see bigger YouTubers get between them and their audience. So I want to make sure that my audience is engaged and we're talking and having conversations and some replies. So I mentioned in another video that Tristan is now helping me with this just because the channel is getting bigger. But it's very important for us to truly appreciate and connect with the people who are watching our content. Lesson number three is support. Have support. Like, Tristan is amazing support. You know, Zach is amazing support. My friends are some amazing support. But, like, when it comes to this, like, YouTube specifically, like, I needed people who understood the path that I was on. And, like, Tristan gets it. I'm very fortunate about that. But she only gets it to an extent, you know, because she's not a YouTube creator. Zach is somebody I met because he's a fellow creator. But what I actually did was I joined some Facebook groups of other people on this YouTube journey as well. So, like, support is a huge part of mental health. I tell you all the time. It's one of the reasons I started my Facebook group for all of you and some rewired soldiers out there, by the way, link down in the description. Come join it. Like, we need support. We need to hear from other people who are going through the same struggles as we are because one of the things a lot of us suffer from is something called terminal uniqueness, where we think we are the only ones going through what we're going through. Lesson number four, stop making videos for yourself. Like, I had to learn that. And this sounds really weird. This sounds really weird because you hear all these YouTubers who talk about burnout. They're like, I kept making videos for other people. I kept making videos for other people. Well, a lot of it is about the mindset. I'm going to talk about mindset a few times throughout this video. But, like, no matter what kind of video you're making, you're making it for other people. You just need to remember that. So, me, you know, I'm truly trying to help people with their mental health, right? Like, that is the focus. That is my goal. That is what I'm trying to do. But, like, for example, my buddy Q-Star, he has a channel where he talks about, you know, Reddit posts and he's a comedian and he makes fun and everything like that. But, like, I was talking to him. I'm like, you provide a lot of value, dude. Like, every time I watch your videos, I laugh and it kind of makes me think, right? So, he's making a video for me, even though he may not realize it. But even people who are like storytime YouTubers or vloggers, like, whenever I make a video, I'm always thinking about what you're going to gain from it. Like, how am I going to help you? So, even if you're doing entertainment or vlogging or music or how-to, like, just we need to stop worrying about, you know, what this video is about for us and how we can help other people, all right? When we switch that mindset, it helps keep me motivated and keep me moving forward. And it also helps me quit worrying about so much about the numbers and the analytics and everything like that because I remember I'm making this for other people. Lesson number five comes from my man himself, Roberto Blake. Roberto Blake. Like, I just, I need people to call me out. I need people to, you know, point out entitlement and I'll never forget. When I first started on YouTube, I was in a live stream of Roberto's. I can't remember if it was in our Facebook group or if it was on one of his YouTube live streams. But I just remember, like, he was talking about how so many YouTubers want to go viral. They want to have a million subscribers. They want to have this. They want to have that. And like, Roberto straight up said, he's like, you have no right to complain until you have 1,000 videos. And I looked at him and I'm like, all right, challenge accepted, mother, you know what I mean? Like, it's true, it's true. We see a lot of people who are complaining and they feel like, you know, the YouTube algorithm owes them something or the audience owes them something. Like, when it comes to this, like, I know that I don't owe, nobody owes me anything. YouTube doesn't owe me anything. You don't owe me anything. Nobody owes me jackpot. Like, until I put in the work, I have no right to complain. And even when I do put in the work, I barely, I barely have a right to complain. So if you're somebody who's trying to create something, like, how much effort are you actually putting into this? Like, I get a lot of people who, you know, say, oh, I want my YouTube channel to grow and things like that and I look at it, I go check out their channel and they got like five videos. I'm like, what do you expect? Like, what do you expect from just a few videos? So I have been taking YouTube seriously for less than a year and a half and I have over 500 videos, over 500 videos. And you guys who have been subscribed, you know, sometimes I put out two, three videos a day. Like, I know that if I wanna get to that goal, I gotta hustle and I gotta work for it. Nothing is owed to me. Lesson number six is stay humble. It's something that I'm constantly working on. It's something I'm constantly trying to do because one of my biggest fears is becoming a hypocrite, right? And on my journey of growing this thing, there's a lot of YouTubers who I've reached out to and all that. And I've noticed, I've noticed that as I grow, more of them are starting to talk to me, right? And like, I look at that, I'm like, that is terrible. That is a terrible way to live. That you're only talking to me once I start growing. So what I try to do is I try to be the change I wanna see in the world. So I'm constantly staying humble. I'm constantly looking at other creators and smaller creators. That's why I try to do collabs. That's why I reply to a lot of people. That's why I share a lot of content because I need to stay humble. Like, I was actually over at Tristan's house yesterday and I was having a conversation with her because a lot of you know, I reply to comments. Sometimes I give a little sassy. And one of my fears is reverting back to this idea that I'm always right. You know what I mean? Like, because if I do that, like my ego is my worst enemy. So I have to be able to look at these things and saying like, okay, am I just having like a disagreement or am I being thickheaded and narrow minded and just think I'm always right? Like, I have to stay humble. Like, I am no different than anybody watching this content right now. The only difference is I have uploaded it onto YouTube. That's it. And truthfully, truthfully, I think, you know, the world in general would be a better place if we just started looking at people as people. Not based on their numbers or how much money they make or anything like that. And like, this is just a human problem. So like some of you have mentioned like one of my biggest pet peeves is just social hierarchies, right? Like, oh, this person has more subscribers so they don't talk to this person. Like that is just some of the most ridiculous stuff ever. So never, ever, ever, ever hold me up on a pedestal. You know what I mean? And again, going back to what I said at the beginning, if you want what I have, just do what I do. Lesson number seven, speaking of staying humble, separate the haters from the constructive criticism. Because it's really easy for me to look at different comments. I think that people are just hating on me. They don't get me. They don't understand all these other things. But I got to sit there and I got to recognize my own bias. I got to recognize, you know, is my ego getting out of control? Thinking that everything I say is the word of God. And you know, I'm always right. Like I have to look at these things and say, okay, this person actually has some good criticisms, right? So for example, for example, I made a video with my son a couple of weeks ago and some people noticed that I moved my mouth when Dylan's talking. I do this all the time. Tristan pointed out that even when I'm watching my own videos, I move my mouth. It's weird. Like that's got someone being a hater. They're pointing it out. I recognize it. I don't know why I do it. Maybe I'll work on it, right? But I'm able to kind of filter out these things and it's an ongoing process of like, is this a criticism that I should really like, pay attention to and take into consideration? Or is this just me realizing that I'm not gonna be able to please 100% of people and like thank you for your feedback. But you know, I'm gonna keep doing it this way. Lesson number eight is huge for any creator out there, any creator out there, be mindful of the content that you want to make. And like, listen to your thoughts and emotions and your passions and your feelings. Like going back to Roberto Blake, like I connect with him on this. Like I remember a long time ago, we were talking and he was saying that, you know, like some days he feels like making a video. So he makes a video. Some days he feels like writing a blog. So he writes a blog. Some days he feels like doing photography. So he does photography. And yeah, like, isn't that what we're all trying to do? Isn't that what YouTubers are trying to do? Is like, do your own thing and just have this kind of freedom. So like a great example is what I'm doing right now with this video. I have some other videos on my list that I wanna make that I need to make because I've promised them to people. But like, I just didn't feel like making it at this moment. I wanted to record, but I didn't feel like wanna do that, right? So I was like, oh, I'll just make this video because it's what my body and my mind is telling me to make. And you can adapt this into part of your life. So let's say for example, you gotta clean your house, okay? Oh, I don't wanna clean the kitchen. Okay, cool. Don't clean the kitchen. Go clean your bedroom, clean the living room, whatever it is. You see what I mean? So rather than doing nothing, I just try to do something, but I listen to what I want to do. And like, a lot of us don't have that freedom at our actual job. So we might as well do it when we're becoming a creator on YouTube, even if you're doing like Instagram or, you know, Twitter stuff or blogging, whatever it is, like listen to what you want to do. Like something else that I've mentioned in previous videos, like, I personally don't strap myself down to a schedule. I make more content than a lot of creators. A lot of creators, but I've never promised you anything. You know why? Because if I wanna take a day off, I didn't promise you a dang thing. Lesson number nine, quick slacking on SEO, right? So this goes back to what I was saying. Like, I have no right to complain unless I'm putting in the word. Like I see a lot of creators who complain about, you know, the algorithm and this and this. I even see huge creators complaining about this. Oh, YouTube's suppressing my content. YouTube's suppressing my content, right? But I look at their SEO. I'm like, are they doing everything they can? Like in the tags and the keywords and the description and the title, like are these things search friendly? And I see a lot of people aren't. And again, like I had to look at myself and do that. Like, if I'm being lazy about that, I have no right to complain about YouTube if I'm being lazy. One of the reasons my channel has been growing is because I make sure that people who are looking for content like mine can find it. So right now, I'll give a huge shout out to my buddy Udo over at the channel, Positively Udo, because she has about 3,000 subscribers but I look at her videos and she has some great videos, some great videos that I know people are looking for. You know how I know people are looking for them? Because they've asked me to make them. Then I'm like, oh, well Udo's making them. But then I looked over at her stuff and I'm like, girl, you are not putting all of the effort into the SEO to make the algorithm able to find your content. And again, like Udo is my girl, she's my buddy and I tell people what they need to hear not what they want to hear. So now Udo is putting a little bit more effort into the SEO. So everybody, if you're on YouTube, just know you can put 500 characters of tags in there. Get decent at writing, write a detailed description. Your titles, your titles, if you look at my titles, they are stuffed with search-friendly keywords. I take probably about an extra 20 minutes every video to make sure that I am doing all of those things. Last but not least, lesson 10, focus on the solution. There are a million reasons why I always say we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And something that is easy for me to do as well as a lot of other creators to do is just talk about the problem, right? Talking about the problem, oh, oh, the YouTube algorithm this or oh, the AdSense that or oh, demonetization this, oh, this, this, this. I'm like, when we stay sucked into that problem, we're completely missing the solutions, right? So all of the things that I've talked about, the SEO, the hustle, the work, all these things, like what can I do? So right now what I do to counteract the way the algorithm works, I make a ton of content. I connect with all of you. I reply to your comments. I do so many different things. When it comes to revenue, I have a Patreon. I have two books up on Amazon. Tristan has helped me make merch. I use affiliate links where I can. I am not beholden to YouTube. And it's something that a lot of entrepreneurial creators have taught me, I focus on the solution. Sitting in the problem, whining, complaining, has not gotten me anywhere ever in life. But you know what does get me somewhere? When I take actionable steps towards the solution, okay? So anyways, that's what I wanted to talk about. And I hope whether you're a YouTuber or not, you were able to take some things from this video. If you want, down in the comments below, let me know which one of these lessons is something that you think that you can adopt into your life, whether you're a YouTuber or not, okay? Anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure to subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton, a ton of videos. And a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. We got some new names up there and you are all just so amazing. If you would like to help support the channel, go ahead and click on top right there. All right, thanks so much for watching.