 So kind of like I said last video the next chapter in the channel is going to be very different from before but one of the biggest differences going forward is from this point on I've decided to just take a shot and go all in full youtuber and just see if we can make this work now I've thought really hard about whether or not to make a video like this but since we're starting a completely new leaf right now and when I go through the comments and when I see the badges next to your name it's just really humbling to see that some of you guys have literally had my back for over two or three years now I mean two years ago we literally barely had 10,000 subs and now we are almost 10 times bigger than what we were then and to see some of the same faces and some of the names in the comment sections of each video it just really does remind and put into perspective for me just how incredibly lucky I am to have you guys for a community a lot of you guys are just as passionate if not more about helping people save time and avoid needless frustration when it comes to learning how to use the software necessary to bring your dreams into reality and so for those of you who have been here since day one in the blender era and continue to be here today I just wanted to be very clear and transparent about the state of the channel and what my plans are to improve it going forward this video will probably contain more personal information than all of the other videos I've uploaded combined but there's really no way to explain what's going on otherwise so basically ever since I graduated college I've been wrestling with how much time do I spend on YouTube and how much time do I spend bouncing back and forth between other jobs and commissions and consultations in order to slowly chip away at my college debt it's been a struggle ever since the beginning of this channel but as the channel has grown it has slowly become a little bit more manageable like right now it's still not that much but I have essentially gotten to the point where now I make enough to just barely cover all the operating costs of what it takes to keep this channel alive and we are at the point now where even if from here on I never got a single new subscriber at least I could make enough to survive off ramen and continue to make content for the subscribers that I already have just going through YouTube so at this point I really feel like if I push YouTube a bit further then there is a chance that I might actually be able to make up for the commission deficit with more video content now of course there's no way to be sure especially how unpredictable the YouTube algorithm is but the way I see it is if there was ever a time in my life that I went all in one direction it might as well be now worst case scenario I break even best case scenario we actually grow and turn this thing into a full-time gig up to this point YouTube and Patreon combined is pretty much how I keep this channel up and running whatever I make from those two sources I typically immediately invest right back into the channel it's usually just enough to pay for equipment rent supplies and any software tools that help increase the quality of the channel things like substance painter materials textures zbrush 3d assets 2d assets random objects that I think would be fun to see in a tutorial and recently when I've had a bit extra I've started to commission other artists to do things like texture characters for me the latest example is the female on real mannequin I had a lot of fun sculpting but I really didn't have the time to texture her so I hired a texture artist to do it for me and he did a much better and faster job than I would have ever done myself which allowed me to focus more on making content for you guys so everything that I make from YouTube and Patreon really just goes into operating costs to keep the channel running now when it comes to other personal things like tuition insurance gas food those are the things that I would normally take up odd jobs commissions and consultations in order to pay for typically that's been my strategy which was make one video a day and then with the extra time do a quick job for somebody to take care of the non-channel related expenses so going forward from now what I'm going to try and do instead is any money that I make from other random sources like selling on art stations selling on the unreal marketplace for whatever small amount comes from live streams or monetization from Twitter or rumble my goal is to use that money to pay off my student debt as fast as possible and once I finish paying that off all of that extra money will instead go towards hiring a team or other artists to make things for you guys here on the channel things that I know everybody needs like textures a set of RPG characters animations blueprints code or things like a video editor a social media manager discord moderator or someone to clip my longer content into shorts these are all things that I currently do all by myself and I do plan to eventually outsource it but for now I can't really save up money and pay for these extra stuff until after I've taken care of my tuition debt so every month anything extra after operating costs I'm going to try and pay that off first and as soon as that's taken care of all of the extra stuff will go into hiring a team to make the channel faster and better for you guys here now like I said if nothing changed I still have enough means to continue to make content for you guys and I will do so I just want you guys to know exactly what's going on and what my plans are to improve it I'm pretty confident that I'm going to be able to increase the quality of the show you know make the community funner or interactive there's a lot of cool stuff that I'm really excited to try out with you guys especially in the live streams and potentially collaborating with other content creators and YouTube channels but we are now going in for a long-term plan and it'll probably take a few years so we can set things up so I don't have to do every single part of the channel by myself but I really do believe that it's going to be worth it so yeah the gloves are off and I will no longer be looking to do random jobs and commissions because I've decided we're just going to find a way to make this work and there is no turning back we're going all in thank you so much for watching thank you for all your support and as always I hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you around