 So this video is going to be filled with some unpopular opinions, but my goal is to help give you all some perspective and hopefully inspire some people along the way. 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 mental health. And what I typically do is pull different topics from the YouTube community, try to teach you how to improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And before I get started, a big, big, big huge thank you to everybody following me over on Instagram. As a lot of you know, my goal the last few weeks has been to get to 10,000 followers so I can get that swipe up feature, make things easier for me, make things easier for you. And we just hit 7,000 so I greatly appreciate it. If you haven't followed me on Instagram yet, go follow me at the Rewired Soul because as soon as I hit 10,000, I'm gonna start doing some giveaways for some merch, some mental health books and all sorts of cool stuff. All right, but yeah, I wanted to make this video, this video, I'm not sure how long it's gonna be, but it's gonna be a little bit of a story time, but I get a lot of messages and comments saying like, oh Chris, don't burn yourself out. Chris, don't burn yourself out. Now, check it out. I love you guys. Like, something that I try to do, like I know that you're coming from a place of concern and I appreciate that, but YouTuber burnout is something that was pretty big in 2018 and I'm just here to let you know. Don't worry about me. And the goal of this video is to hopefully give you some perspective on my work, how I do my work and hopefully because I know I have other YouTubers who watch my channel now too, I hope it gives them some perspective as well. My goal for this channel is not only to help people with their mental health, but to hopefully motivate and inspire people as well. All right. So anyways, let's get started. A lot of you know, I was a drug addict and alcoholic for nearly 10 years, okay? So I started drinking at about 18 and I got sober on my 27th birthday. So like, I know I have a bunch of recovering addicts and alcoholics who are subscribed to my channel and you know exactly what I'm talking about. That is a full-time job. Like you guys, like being a drug addict and alcoholic is, it's more than a full-time job. It's 24-7. Like, and this isn't a good thing. This is a terrible thing. Like addiction had me in its clutches. Whenever I would wake up, I needed to find a bottle. I needed to find pills. I was trying to get a hold of my dealer and stuff, right? So I was working full-time jobs throughout my addiction. I got fired quite a few times or let go or asked to resign, right? But like to put in perspective for you, like there was one time when I lost a pill in my like high carpeting, I looked for it for three hours, okay? And at the end of this video, I'm going to talk about like my YouTube process, but I just want you to remember that. I have looked for a pill because I was such a fiending drug addict. I looked for it in my carpet for three hours. All right? Like that is insane. So anyways, I got sober when I was 27 years old. I had a year off of work just to focus on myself and my recovery. I was very fortunate in that aspect. A lot of you by the way asked me about my recovery and to share more stories. Like I have an entire playlist where I share a lot of stories about this called Ask an Attic or How to Get Clean and Sober. Go check that out. Or it's all in my book Hope, which is always linked down in the description, okay? But anyways, I got sober at 27 years old after a year. I moved back to Vegas because it was time to start being an adult again and be a father to my son again. Okay? So I moved back to Las Vegas and the first job I got, the first job I got was working from 7am to 3pm. And I didn't have a driver's license or a car because messed that up in my addiction. And my job was across town. All right? So I had to take an hour and a half bus ride each way. Okay? So if you do the math, if my job started at 7, then I'd take an hour and a half bus ride. That's why I had to get on the bus at 5.30 in the morning. That meant I was waking up at 4.30 in the morning to get ready to make sure I could hit the bus at 5.30 in the morning. And then guess what? I took an hour and a half bus ride home every single day. I did that five days a week. And I missed like, after working there for almost two years, I think I missed like one or two days of work. All right? So like, put that in perspective real quick. So I was doing that for a long time. And not only was I doing that before all my recovering addicts, like I tell, I tell clients like when I'm working at a drug and alcohol treatment center, like don't give me the excuse that you can't go to meetings because I was doing that, that routine, and I was going to five meetings a week still. All right? While being a father to my son, I had him on the weekends because we split custody. So after that job, I ended up getting the job at the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center. Okay? So by that time, I actually had a car, which is pretty awesome. So I ended up getting the job at the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center. So my position there, a lot of you have asked me, like, what are your credentials? What did you do? My job was an alumni coordinator. So one of my main responsibilities was to be on call, like pretty much 24 seven for everybody who discharged from treatment. So if they were struggling with their addiction or mental health or whatever, they can call me on my cell phone or text me, or I was on social media and they can hit me up and I would talk to them. All right? Some people relapse and I had to get them back in the treatment. That was a 24 seven gig. My work cell phone was on me all the time. All right? So imagine that I was working from nine to five every day, but I had my cell phone on me 24 seven. So there was times I was working before work. There was times I was working after work. All right? Aside from that, I would do events for the clients on the weekends, like once a month. So someday some weeks I was working six days a week. And then while I was at treatment, I was doing groups. I was doing one on one sessions. I was making phone calls. I was talking to people. I was organizing other events. So like I was a busy guy. Now I was still working at the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center when I decided I was going to do a YouTube channel. So check this out. Check this out. So not only was I doing all that stuff, being on a call 24 seven, but I was also not making enough money. So I was doing freelance writing on the side, probably spending about 20 hours a week on average writing for other people just so I can make some extra money. Aside from that, I turned into a pretty much daily YouTuber. Okay? So I want you to add all these things up. I was an extremely, extremely busy guy, but not only that, I had my son, my beautiful girlfriend and I Tristan were already dating by then. So I want you to put in perspective how busy I actually was. All right? So now, let's fast forward to where I'm at today. I don't even want to call it being a full-time YouTuber because YouTuber is a small piece of what I'm doing. As a lot of you know, I've written books, you know, I'm active on social media. I'm doing collabs with other people and stuff like that. And I have a lot of stuff planned for 2019, doing podcasts and all that. But I want, I want you guys to know like how I've worked my entire life. So now I'm able, I'm fortunate enough to do this full-time. So think about it. Okay? So the average person, full-time employee is working eight hours a day. Okay? My videos, and you guys see, I do two to three videos a day, most days, my videos take me one to two hours from filming to the end of editing and getting it uploaded. Okay? So one to two hours. So if I do three videos a day, that is six hours of work. So technically, even if I'm pumping out three videos in a day, I'm still working a lot less than some of you. I'm getting off two hours early. All right? Like think about that for a second. So that's why I don't want you guys to worry about me getting burnt out. Like this ain't new, baby. This ain't new. I'm actually getting time off now by doing this. So I've made some videos about like work-life balance as well. And don't worry about that either. So for example, just in the last 24 to 48 hours, my son and I, we went to go see Aquaman. Pretty sweet movie. All right? This, he's been with me most of this week and he's played Spider-Man. Today, we're going to live stream. We're going to play Fortnite together here on my channel. So Tristan and I, Tristan and I, we just binge watched the entire season of Lemony Snickets in about a day. So like, I want you guys to realize like, I'm getting plenty, plenty of time. Half of my day, half of my day is playing with cats. All right? So, so here's my unpopular opinion. All right? When you guys get worried about me getting burnt out and like, this is, I'm not throwing direct shade at anybody, but like, I think a lot of you have been brainwashed by YouTubers. I think the lack of consistency, I think the lack of content that's been put out. I think when you see somebody like me, who's uploading as frequently as I am, you're worried about me. So when you're seeing other YouTubers who are uploading once a week, once a month, like, I know, I know, like, I have, I have empathy. I trust me. I have empathy. But like, you guys are seeing all these people burning out. And like, I want to be somebody on this platform. Like, I've already had other YouTubers saying like, man, you pump out a lot of content. It makes you want to do more. Good. Good. Like, I know other YouTubers have higher production value. But like, one of the issues is, and I'm wearing my shirt today, a lot of YouTubers think that they're, they're these unique unicorns, right? Nobody understands. Nobody understands the plight of a YouTuber, right? But like, for me, I feel like it would be disrespectful to all of you to be doing this full time and not putting in at least 40 hours a week. You know what I'm saying? So like, I know other YouTubers have higher production value than I do. But you guys, like, if you put in 40 hours a week, if you put in 40 hours a week, I really, it's really hard for me to fathom a YouTuber not putting out one video a week. Like, and that's being lenient. I think most YouTubers could do two videos a week. Like, I'm insane. And not only do I do videos pretty much every day, I do multiple videos. But think about how much slack I'm cutting to people who are doing a lot less. So like, again, I wanted this to be like a well rounded like kind of story time for all of you to understand, like, don't worry about me. Like, I'm used to hard work. I'm used to hustle. Okay, this ain't nothing. After this, Tristan and I, we're going to set up some stuff in the apartment. And again, I'm going to play with Dylan. But I want you guys to all think about that real quick. And if any other YouTubers are watching this, I want you to think about this too. Because something that I talk about often is not often enough is that YouTubers become disconnected from their audience. And, and like, maybe do some videos on it eventually. But I've seen some, some YouTubers on Twitter complaining about some stuff. I'm like, Oh my God, like, I would feel like such a jerk complaining about this in front of my fans. You know what I mean? Like, I know some of you, I know some of you are working full time jobs that you hate, right? I know some of you are working full time jobs, some of you are working two jobs, and you have kids. You know what I mean? So like, I feel like I owe it to you guys to put in as much work into this as you're putting in work to the rest of the world. You know what I'm saying? So anyways, anyways, I hope, I hope this gave you some clarity. And again, like, I appreciate all of you who are worried, like, Oh, Chris, don't burn yourself out. Like, I appreciate that. A lot of you asked me, like, do you get enough sleep? Like my sleep sucks. My sleep apnea has gotten better since I've lost some weight. I think these bag bags under my eyes are going to be there forever. I don't know what it is. But yeah, I sleep at least, I don't know, six to eight hours a night. I know I should be getting seven to eight, you know, whatever it is. But yeah, you guys, like, the other thing is too, I'm very fortunate. And this is why my videos are also not only to help you to help other you, but to help other YouTubers, like, I love what I do. I absolutely love what I do. Whenever I find something where I can discuss a mental health topic that might be able to help one of you, it it jazzes me up so I can make another video that might be able to help somebody out there. So that's one of the things I have going for me is I absolutely love doing this. All right. But anyways, I hope this gave you some more clarity on my situation. Don't forget to go follow me on Instagram. We're getting so close to 10,000 followers. All right. But anyways, if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because like I just said, I make a ton of videos and a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. I've updated this list. So all the names should be accurate on this list wherever it is right here. And the Q&A post is up. So if you have questions and you're a patron, go ahead and ask. All right. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.