Sometimes, new projects come unexpected. Last week, I felt the urge to create my very first YouTube video, reacting to a stock analyst warning about Tesla stock.
The video was more successful than I ever hoped possible, reaching 500 views in just a few days.
So an idea was born:
Today, I created my second video:
I’m already a bit embarrassed by my first video, but I guess that’s the way it should be.
If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
— Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of Linkedin
My first video took me about 9 hours to produce, plus an additional 2-3 hours to promote. The process for the second video was already much smoother. It took less than 6 hours to produce, and I have already learned some very valuable lessons from early feedback:
- Shorter videos (my goal is max. 10 minutes per video, which is both easier to produce as well as consume)
- Don’t read the script
- Eye-contact with the camera
- Adding easter eggs and some fun editing elements
Another principle I am applying is Whatever scares you, go do it. Being in front of a camera, talking and performing, is certainly nothing I have a particular predisposition towards. So that’s exactly what I’m doing, getting out of my comfort zone.
And what made me do it? I had this particular gut feeling, the one that leaves you half excited and half scared. I learned in my life to trust this gut feeling, and that’s what I’m doing.
So far it’s a hobby, and I don’t know yet how ambitious I want to be. I plan to do 50 videos in the next 25 weeks, and not try to judge the results too much before that. Let’s see how far I will get.
If you’d like to follow along and support my journey, it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe to my channel.