 Alright hello and welcome to the very first episode of the vlog in 2021, I'm excited to be here. My name is Kwame and I'm a documentary filmmaker and voiceover artist as well as a photographer sometimes and a YouTuber as you can see so this if so if this is your first time here don't hesitate to hit the like button for this video and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already subscribed. I make videos about my freelance journey which was technically supposed to be I mean it's supposed to be old now because it started last year so that's why I started this YouTube channel in the first place just to keep you guys up to date with what I'm up to in my freelance journey as well as yeah my new journey from working in radio for eight years and then quitting and starting something of my own as a freelancer so that's basically who I am in summary so yes if you like what you're hearing right now and you want to see more videos from me don't forget to hit the like button like I said and hit the subscribe button and I'm gonna be posting more videos as and when I make them which is most likely every week but you don't know this year I'm not promising anything I'll put them out as and when I get them it could be more it could be less but something has to come out at least once a week so yes today happens to be a very special day for me because exactly this day if you're watching this video on the third day of January 2020 that's when I posted my first ever vlog and it was just announcing that I quit my job and it's okay so if you haven't seen that video yet I think it pops up here is here here it pops up on the screen somewhere it will show up you can check it out and looking back at that time till now I see a lot of change I see a lot of growth and I am super excited about it because when I started and my friend told me that I was very stiff and uncomfortable and when I was watching the videos I was actually arguing that well that's that's just how I look or talk but then few months down the line after I got comfortable with talking on camera and you know putting my words together properly I realized that it looks different and it's changed so yeah thanks to everyone who has stuck through those days all the way till now and how things look now so yeah today what I'm gonna do on yes the very first episode of you know the vlog for the year 2021 is to actually share all the things I've picked up in the last 365 days on YouTube as a youtuber so that if you are planning on starting your YouTube channel in 2021 maybe you started but you've not been able to be consistent and you need a few tips and tricks or a few lessons here and there just to keep going then this video is definitely for you now I haven't even scripted this video so I don't know how forgive me it might not be very coherent in terms of the points which means that I'm not going to say points one do this point to do this point three do this I'm just gonna be spewing the lessons as and when they come to me and the first one that I would probably say is that you should know exactly what you want to do before you start a YouTube channel I knew what I wanted to spread across the whole year the plan was to spread something across the whole year every single week in terms of the things I was learning so know what exactly you want to do before you start up even your Google account or whatever it is they're going to use for YouTube know it will know what exactly you want to start what you want to vlog on and how you want to go about it now as to how you get comfortable do not worry over time it gets easier you get better at talking in front of the camera and being articulate and being confident so do not worry about that part I know it's nerve-wracking it's annoying when you're making a lot of mistakes and you hate yourself for it because you're sitting at one place for an hour and you've not been able to figure out how to put out one idea it's annoying don't worry about that part worry about knowing what exactly you want to talk about researching it properly planning it properly if you want to script it yes there are options that you know devices that can help you if you want to wing it's like I'm doing right now then hopefully you know how to talk the mistakes will come they are allowed that is why you have editing software to be able to cut them and piece them together but the most important aspect of your YouTube journey is knowing exactly what you want to do now following that up I would say that even though you may know what exactly you want to do do not box yourself into one genre of YouTube or niching yourself immediately when you're a beginner when I started I wanted to do productivity videos and my freelance journey and you know the lessons I'm learning which was a bit skewed towards only that side of things but over time I realized that when I explored other ideas and other topics especially with lifestyle or lifestyle related topics travel with my wife our daily activities and all these things when I put them out there they were much more refreshing than the ones which had my face showing all the time sitting at one position and just not doing a lot of things and just talking talking talking so do not box yourself into one genre it's a bit difficult to be you know going in and out of genres and all that but maybe you are interested in one maybe two at most three things you can be posting it or you can be posting your videos around those topics every now and then it changes location changes all these things changes and then you realize that it's almost always refreshing when you post a video because they're not expecting you to come and sit at one place and talk talk talk all the time for some channels who have built over time it works for them and people expect that this is what they are getting from the channel all the time but it works over time that is the kind of patience that most people don't have because when they don't see the growth as fast as they expected then they give up so let me just say another thing that I've learned is that be very very patient all the videos you're going to be posting out there nobody even owes you the views or whatever it is your expectations should be lowered in terms of views and all that one video that you think that might do really well people don't really watch it and the video that you didn't probably even like is what people really really enjoy so you cannot really predict audience you know reception to your videos so you have to be really patient you have to be really consistent with posting your videos and hopefully one of them will click and when it does click hold on when it does click I think that everything will start rolling from there people will discover your channel and it will grow as you know fast as you deserve as one youtuber mentioned in this one of his latest videos Ali Abdaal if you have not heard of Ali Abdaal he's a productivity youtuber and he's quite good very good at what he does it is one of his previous videos which is just I think two days or three days ago where he talked about how much he's earned over the year 2020 he also mentioned something with success or an equation he defines success to be which is work multiplied by luck multiplied by unfair advantage or unfair advantage so you have to put in the work it's it's no brainer you have to put in the work now even if you put in the work there's no guarantee that you'll be successful that's the most painful part however there's also the lock bit whereby you may have a breakthrough just one video can just spiral and go viral and there you are with all the big numbers that you've wanted and then you have to now keep up the unfair advantage part is you know having something that nobody else has and maybe having a skill that nobody else has that you've practiced so much that gives you an unfair advantage in your beginning so maybe your unfair advantage is your personality or the things that you know your research ability your articulation all these things maybe that's your unfair advantage maybe you've learned how to your graphic designer so maybe your your thumbnail design and maybe even the interaction in your videos look exceptionally good than the average person which is an unfair advantage to you which you do deserve because it's you it's all part of you so success is like I said or like he said is defined by the work you put in the lock and of course the unfair advantage you may have one thing you should note in my YouTube over the year is that well there's this good there's gonna be this argument about what gear you should get and all these things all the expensive gear that your people are posting by this by that look this argument is gonna go on forever but what I'm gonna tell you now it may sound a bit you know cliche or whatever it is but your best gear you have is your personality your intelligence and your execution you can use your iPhone I know people who do great with iPhone I have a friend one men's you can check its channel out I'll probably link it in the description below he does great content this year he has shot a lot of things with mobile phones so it's not even about the camera or whatever it is if you know the technicalities which is also an unfair advantage if you do learn it if you know how to light if you know how to get good sound your iPhone or whatever phone you have which has good quality video is good enough now you may be limited to certain things which you know like you know getting the blurry background like you're seeing right now but that's fine not everybody is actually looking at all those things people upload things with their phones and they do incredibly well they have hundreds of thousands of views so personality pierces through and keeps people engaged way way better than the gears gear is important I'm lighting this thing with my Godox SL 60 with a huge dish 120 yes the Godos pH P120 H I don't know yeah it's a huge dish is making the light soft and everything yes I advise that you learn all these things know it but if you can get budget friendly alternatives buy them just know how to use it knowing how to use it is more important than getting the best gear the most expensive gear and not knowing how to use it is too useless and people sometimes don't even can't even tell the difference and don't even care so personality is more important your research is more important if you're witty if you're funny whatever it is that keeps your people engaged and wanting to come for more is more important and do not forget over the year that you're doing this do not forget that you need to grow you need to explore different ideas you need to find different ways of executing the same thing that you've been doing over and over again I don't know if I should go into the technicalities of what YouTube requires of you in terms of if you also have the mindset that this could be an income earner for you which is a passive active income because you have to post videos in order to get the views in order to get the money I can go into that briefly you need to have at least 1000 subscribers before you can 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours which translates into 240,000 minutes which means that you need a lot of views which means that you need to be very consistent with posting which means that you need to promote your videos when you do them your thumbnail all these things but slow down you will learn how to do all these things over time some people get to the thousand and even a 4000 watch hours in the space of six months three months even less or more some people do it for four years five years before they reach a thousand it's there's no hard and fast rule success work luck unfair advantage so all these come together to make your YouTube journey and your content creation journey what it may be should you start a YouTube channel hell yeah you should start a YouTube channel if you can keep up if you're not going to commit to this fully hundred percent 150 percent 200 percent do not start it's it's it's rather you know discouraging especially when you post videos that you think should do really well and they don't end up doing well you don't get enough views is discouraging you don't feel like setting up and recording again but if you know what you want if you have the patience and you want to see what could come out of this if it's a long-term plan for you you honestly enjoy making the videos or creating content for people to watch if that's you you enjoy it naturally and it's not just you want the money quick and that's why you're here and then when you don't get the money quick enough then you get annoyed and you leave then by all means start your YouTube channel find different ways of putting out your work the creativity is within you people can teach you the technicalities as much as they can but the creativity of how you use it it's entirely up to you do not I mean replicate what people are doing I tried that when I started because I was inspired by a few productivity YouTube channels but I realized over time that certain things that they have unfair advantage in terms of the allocation and the gear that they have and the research that goes into it the ability to even do it full time and be able to sustain themselves I do not have it would take time so I can't reach where they are in what they've done in five years getting hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a space of a year so yeah there's a lot I've picked up and where you find that is working for you keep hitting it but don't overdo it to the point where it becomes boring find new ways of putting out that same you know advantageous content that you know it's it's helping your channel in more creative ways to keep people engaged to keep people watching and so yeah that's that's basically what I would say I've learned in my first year on YouTube it's a fun platform and I've learned almost everything I know about film lighting sound a lot of things on YouTube and I still keep learning a lot of things from YouTube and it has advantages it has its disadvantages you know with you know buying things and trying to keep up with other people who may have the resources that you don't have and all these things so yeah happy anniversary to this channel it's okay my name is Kwame again if you like this video don't forget it to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel if you're already subscribed and you haven't even hit the bell button to get notified whenever I post the video don't forget to do that hit that bell button and let's make 2021 a much better year big shout out to you who have been with me all throughout the year and are still with me and of course welcome to the new people who may have been watching this for the first time I would say bye for now before I continue rambling if you have any questions yes if you want to follow up of this video I don't even know if there should be a follow-up of this video if you have any questions that you want to ask put them in the comment section below and I'll be sure to answer those questions and yeah sure let's do this what comes to 2021 third January 2021 and so it begins again thank you and catch you in the next one peace