I just finished watching the latest video by Nate Black. For those that don’t know, he’s a YouTube coach who recently left a channel called Channel Makers to start his own channel.
Here’s the video I just finished watching:
In the video, he asked the audience to answer two questions:
What do you want YouTube to do for you?
What do you want to do with YouTube?
I realised for so long that I just focused on continuing to churn out weekly videos, with no real end goal or plan to focus and steer my decisions. Thanks in part to this video, and also in part to me re-reading Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why, I took some time to sit down with my thoughts and work out exactly WHY I want to keep making videos, and what exactly I want YouTube to do for me.
Here’s my response:
1 – What do you want YouTube to do for you?
- I want YouTube to find people with similar interests who are eager to know more about the games and companies I care about.
- I want to people to find a new favourite channel and experience an emotional connection with my content.
- I want people to leave each video feeling like they learned something new, or at least enjoyed their time watching!
- I want YouTube to help me learn and grow as a creator and a person, by challenging myself to make better content, and learning how to present, edit and share my ideas in an engaging way. Improving my communication and presentation skills has already helped massively in my day job.
- I would also love to branch out in the future on a separate channel to create some content that can appeal to a wider audience outside of just games.
- In the long term, I want YouTube to provide me with a full time income, so I can quit my day job and free up time for other creative endeavours. Some of those would include making games, writing books, sharing my knowledge to help other creators, and whatever else excites me at that point in time!
2 – What do you want to do with YouTube?
- I want to upload as much interesting and enjoyable (to make, and watch!) content as I can
- I want to turn my main channel into a go-to resource for retro gaming enthusiasts, with playlists of interesting videos for people to discover and enjoy
- I want to use YouTube as a way of improving myself and my content
- I DONT want to create content because of requests from others, be it reviews, promotions or sponsorships. I had to do that in the past and it was draining. I spent so much time playing and reviewing something I ended up not liking. It felt like a waste of time for me, and everyone watching. Hopefully I can say no to more requests like that and focus on what feels right!
Start with Why
Here’s my (work in progress) conclusion to Simon’s question of Why… The book is great, and there’s an accompanying TED talk too, it’s an old video, but still very relevant and useful today:
https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en
I thought about this on a much deeper level than just my retro gaming focussed YouTube channel and really tried to distill exactly WHY I want to make content at all.
WHY
To create, explore my passions, inspire others, and to share my love of retro games.
- Keep creating and sharing projects
- Grow and challenge myself
- Satisfy and explore my interests (Making games, retro games, film making, creativity)
- Inspire people to create and enjoy the process too
- Be able to create anything I want (Programming, design, editing, filming etc)
- Be proud and confident in my abilities at home, work and content creation
- Prove I can do it, I always looked up to successful creators and wondered if I’d ever be able to be on their level.
- To become someone people look up to and be seen as an expert in my field
HOW
- Creating interesting and intellectually / emotionally stimulating content for a dedicated audience
- Writing scrips and content, continually improving my writing style and delivery
- Building a good studio space to record in
- Collecting interesting games and merchandise to make videos on
- Researching gaming history
- Taking notes, reflecting and improving after each release
- Personal Development
WHAT
- Videos
- Games
- Books
- Apps / Websites
- Consulting / Courses
Clarity of WHY
Understanding the purpose
- I want to create and challenge myself to make the best content, which in turn will inspire others to do the same. I want to be able to create anything I put my mind to, and teach those skills to others so they can embark on the same exciting journey.
- I want to dive deep into topics that interest me, finding new ways to connect the information and share it with the world. I want to stretch myself creatively by incorporating more storytelling and emotion into my content.
- I also want to find a good balance so I can take time away to recharge and find new interests.
Discipline of HOW
Systems and processes
- Streamlined recording setup – camera, mic, lighting all ready to go
- Backup hard drives
- Fast PC for editing
- Structure for scripting and planning videos
- Editing template – re-use key assets to speed up workflow
- Use live streams to gather footage to edit
Upload schedule:
| Day: | Process: | Content: |
| Monday | Record main video | Podcast |
| Tuesday | Live Stream | Stream |
| Wednesday | Edit main video / B-Roll | VOD |
| Thursday | Edit main video | |
| Friday | Edit / Script / Plan | Main Video |
| Saturday | Script main video | |
| Sunday | Podcast |
Use weekends or free days for writing big scripts / books
Consistency of WHAT
Results of the actions and processes
- Videos (Every Friday at 4pm)
- Streams (Every Tuesday at 7:30pm)
- Books (One per year)
No set schedule:
- Games
- Podcast
- Blog posts
- Apps
Some notes from the book:
- Start with feelings before facts
- When motivated by why, success happens
- When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. When you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you (Stop checking and comparing against other YouTubers, focus on my own goals and growing my own style!)
If you want to see more of my plans and ideas, consider checking out the behind the scenes tier on my Patreon.
Thanks for reading, Nick