Resources I’m Using to Start My YouTube Channel
One of my main YouTubers I’ve been taking a lot of inspiration from has been Ali Abdaal. He’s got like some 5 million subscribers, and I love his videos because they appeal to beginners, like me. One of the most recent videos I watched this week of his was the one about newsletters: Why everyone should start an email newsletter
So here I am, writing content for my newsletter. The key takeaway I got from this video wasn’t that you can make millions just by starting a newsletter, but rather, how he’s grown his following of people just based on posting updates of his week, articles he’s read or what content he himself has consumed. And I think that’s pretty cool. So, since I’m not really sure how to start a newsletter, or really what the goal for my writing is yet - yoga, obviously, but I don’t just want to be about everything yoga, sanskrit and meditation. I want it to be real, to be me, to be about what life is like as a yogi in the Western culture of America. For me to preach how zen, vegan, and connected I all the time would be fake of me.
So why not take a more common approach from inspirational YouTubers I follow?
Another big favorite of mine is Dan Koe. One of his main messages to the internet is that you can do what you love for a living by becoming a content creator, and that content creators are making so much money because they’re ahead of the curve, and eventually lots and lots of people will become one over time.
What I like about his message is that he reminds me why I’m choosing this path. That becoming a content creator doesn’t have to mean looking sexy and posting sick photography, but that being a content creator means sharpening your writing skills for scripting and newsletters, improving your public speaking skills for the camera and future in person events, and also being immersed in reading and researching all the time to ensure your content is well-informed and not just opinion-based.
The most recent video I’ve watched of his this week was: The One-Person Business Model (How To Productize Yourself)
It’s about 30 minutes long and I must've started it a few weeks back, but I ended up finishing it this week. My favorite part was at 21:32 when we broke down how to turn your own personal experiences into a business, hence the ‘one-person business model’ title.
Another message from this video I’ve been ruminating on is that “everyone’s selling something these days” and how a lot of people say that in a negative tone, but his combat to this was something like this - if you’re not selling your own stuff, you’re selling someone else's. So, would you rather be making money for other people or learn how to do that for yourself? For me, I choose the latter. I want to of course sell my own stuff, but there’s naturally going to be things I don’t really need to sell myself. Like lululemon. They do such a great job on their clothes, I don’t need to have a clothing brand today to compete, I’ll let them handle the clothes on my body and be ‘selling’ them just be wearing them and increasing brand awareness.
However, what I will learn how to sell is myself, so then I can make money off of lululemon maybe (or some other yogi clothes brand), AND also learn how to productize myself. And I plan to do this through my yoga and self-actualization YouTube channel. So I hope you find the videos in this article to be helpful and inspiring and I’ll see you next week!
~ CIAO,
SAM
