No prompting, no Chatgpt involved on this one. This will be my own full writing. I promise. Okay, maybe some fancy, AI powered jpegs. But that’s it.
Also, well, this title maybe misleading because it suggests, that I will go on Youtube and be the next unicorn rocking 100k views with my first videos. It’s obviously not the case, but I drew some important conclusions recently, of how the platform actually works and I’m here to share them.
Few words upfront
Today I had a brilliant idea. And I will tell you why at the end of this blogpost. So you better keep reading hahah. Now before I start, I need to get this clear. I’ve been trying to kickstart this Youtube channel that I’ve been heavily procrastinating on for a long time. Honestly in the past months, I’ve just been surviving while riding through Central America on a motobike, that I didn’t even have the driving licence for. So just tried to stay under the radar, really. And at most times, I didn’t have electricity or internet. So I still try to be gentle with myself on this.
This week I arrived to a place however (where, it doesn’t really matter from this blogpost’s perspective, if you really want to know, shoot me a message), where I can finally focus on putting a working mechanism together, to start the fly-wheel spinning. This is it. Now is the moment. I cannot wait any longer. And I want to find sponsors. Yes, I have a goal to find sponsors via Youtube. It’s not easy, but I have to try. And I want to try exactly, because it’s not easy. It’s actually really damn hard.
So this week I locked myself into a hostel and went to open library spaces to revisit about 2.000 raw footage of my trip (video clips between 10 seconds -10 minutes long) that I’ve been shooting in the past months.
- Shot in the air via drone (in the past months I became a quite acceptable dronepilot and despite my drone was hit, got overheated and almost got lost several times in the bush, for some awkward reason I can’t really explain, I still have it healthy with all its’ footage stored),
- on the motobike with action cameras, me talking into the camera to reflect on my story and
- even underwater footage while diving (yes, that is a sentence, I would not have thought to write down in this lifetime, but even became an acceptable underwater cameraman for a bit, something, that I’ve deeply enjoyed), etc.
Traveling the world alone for a while now, over time I had to realize, maybe I’m starting to have a story to tell. A more compelling story that has main quests and side quests. A story that can flow, can go left and right and go back to center. Effortlessly.
It’s definitely not the best story and maybe I don’t even have the natural charisma to shine through a video, and bring it alive, but it’s definitely MY story, so at least I’ve got to give it a shot. I think after shooting videos for almost 2 years in all kinds of conditions, I – at least – deserve a chance.
About the craft
Over this process I’ve explored that video making is a craft. You cannot take it for granted. You have to earn it. You have to earn it through hard work. And I’ve also realized, that doing Youtube is another craft. Because what they don’t tell you about Youtube too often is, that Youtube is part of Google. And Google is a tech-company. So Youtube is heavily driven by tech as well. And I’m actually not a complete analphabet in tech, having decent big-tech work experience. Tech is actually something I’ve always deeply enjoyed exploring. Not that I’m a tech nerd. I’m not a software engineer whatsoever. Quite far from that. But I deeply enjoy learning about algorithms and breaking complex processes down to scratch to understand their foundational drivers.
About addictive platforms
Before, I tried to be present everywhere. I was present on Instagram, Youtube and Tiktok. But to be frank, I didn’t like the fast-food content, that you can serve on silver plate on Instagram and TikTok. Brainrotting content exists. These 2 platforms are heavily powered by algorithms that select the videos with the highest traction (comments, likes, shares) and push them forward to new viewers. I don’t want to talk down on these platforms, because they also have brilliant content, BUT to be honest, you have to be extremely selective of what you let into your brain. Because they can push you down into a rabbit hole and make you addicted easily.
I’ve actually created a rule for myself, that I can only check Instagram for 5 minutes a day. Then I delete the app. So everyday, I would download the app, just to check if someone texted me, I respond, or I put out a story, and then DELETE. Every single day.
The reason I do that is, I need to be real honest with myself. I’m an addiction-sensitive person. I get easily addicted to things. Whenever I watch Instagram videos, I feel like I’d be drinking Coca Cola or smoking a cigarette. I feel that my power of will deteriorates heavily after watching every single video. By the time I stop watching, I feel I’ve got mentally pushed down and my energy level actually drops.
Recently Mark Zuckerberg had to face a court trial where he was accused of building the Meta platforms too addictive, that has a HUGE mental health impact – on teenagers especially, see the link below. So I’m not just making this up. These are facts.
Mark Zuckerberg faces trial
Source: https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=nx-s1-5358434
Crafting compelling stories
So I eventually had to realize, that fast-food content is not for me. I’m a slow speaker and a slow thinker. I wanted to give more context. I wanted to take my time in the video. Let it breathe. Let it sit. Let it stand up and let it levitate. Let it speed up. Let it slow down. Like a dance. My pace just couldn’t catchup with the needs of Instagram or TikTok. And let’s be real honest here, my content wasn’t good enough either.
Through this learning curve, I eventually came to a realization, that I want to tell more compelling stories. Without time limits. And to give you information and most importantly – to give value. We will come back on this in a bit.
I’ve learned a lot about the algorithms of each platform, but to be honest, trying to excel on 3 different ones is like, you are trying to excel at 3 different workplaces. Each workplace has it’s own foundational context, culture, suppliers, customers and in this case, most importantly – technology. Instagram will have a very different tech and audience versus Tiktok or Youtube.
The Sean Hammond case
There is this Irani/Irish guy on Instagram, who’s been traveling the world and sharing content amongst others, from Indian trains, Pakistani mountains or from Buddhist temples. He is extremely handsome (man to man, I’ll shamelessly give it to him), culturally open and sensitive and in his content, while he is smiling in front of these beautiful places, above his head – while a cinematic or emotional soundtrack is played, a catchy text is displayed, like “The side of Bali you haven’t seen.” The video takes only 30 seconds, it’s visually extremely provocative and it has 100 million views. He became so successful with these videos, that he collected more than 1.2 million followers sharing these 30-40 seconds takes. He’s got sponsorship deals up to 5 figures in USD. Monthly. You can check him out.
I was curious to see if he’s present on Youtube, so I looked him up. I was super surprised to see, that he actually posted the same content on Youtube as well and there they were stuck – at an average of 8-10 thousand views. How the hack is that possible?
So just to turn back on this thought, all the platforms have different audiences, who have different wants and needs. The platforms align the algorithms to these needs. And the platforms were created for different purposes as well. Youtube has a VERY different purpose and audience compared to Instagram and the content type needs to match those needs.
As my favorite Youtube guru, George Alexander would say, you need to ALIGN WITH the Youtube algorithm to get successful. You cannot work against it. Youtube, well. Youtube is a money earning machine, nothing more, nothing less. It’s aim is to earn more money. And it does so, through your content. It has its best interest to push your content forward, if your content worths watching. So it can display more ads, and earn revenue. So you need to increase the audience watch time of your videos, to get noticed by the algorithm and have your videos presented to new audiences. You can actually do that, by breaking down the video into its puzzle pieces and see, based on which key characteristics would Youtube videos become highly successful.
About valuable storytelling
Before I get into this, I want to share a disclaimer here, that in order to collect the information and knowledge I’ve gained about how Youtube works, I was heavily studying the top Youtube educators’ content, like George Alexander or Kallaway. While there are great other educators out there, to me, these 2 guys stand out and they are the alpha and omega (being very subjective here) of sharing information about how Youtube as a platform works. While I have refined the information I learned in the past months (among others) from these guys, that I will share below, I do recommend to check them out if you have any intention of entering into the Youtube game. So let’s get back to this.
To define a good video’s elements I will break this down into a triangle. Let’s call it the triangle of valuable storytelling.
Good storytelling is inspiring, transformative and connects people. It provides value, information and context. These are the raw puzzle pieces. And to glue them together, it entertains at the same time. Because even if your video has banger value, if it’s not presented in an entertaining way, no one will watch it. There are exceptions, but you need to be a rockstar for that. Or at least close enough.
Source from Chatgpt
The good way to measure a video’s provided value – as George Alexander would say, is through micro-transformations. Could the video provide some value or information to the audience, that they didn’t posess before watching your video? If yes, you indeed reached a micro-transformation provided to your audience.
Now, while micro-transformation is important, it’s not everything. Here comes into picture, how Youtube videos actually operate. Youtube as a platform today has extreme high competition. So let’s break down into pieces, how you could actually stand out in a highly competitive environment.
About friction elimination
Friction is anything that gets in BETWEEN the audience and the value, you promised to deliver in your videos. Frictions can be an unclear message, slow pacing, confusing storyline, distracting edits, transitions, music, unnecessary info, bad audio, poor video quality, etc.
Source from Chatgpt
Any good video on Youtube, right at the start has a clear promise. Before you would even start watching the video, a video’s “shop window” is its’ title and thumbnail. If that doesn’t look right, or it’s confusing, nobody will click on your video. Youtube is trying hard though. It pushes your content in front of new audiences. But if the title and the thumbnail fails to create a ‘curiosity gap,’ no one will will give you a chance. This means, looking through the shop window, your audience needs to feel tempted to get into your shop. Simple psychology.
If you’ve got the title and thumbnail right, you might get a click to your video. And there comes the magic element right upfront, when someone clicks on your video: ‘the hook.’ A video’s hook, has to be the first visual that the audience sees in your video. And it has to create an aligned ‘promise‘ with your title and ‘thumbnail‘. IF the title, thumbnail and hook, are working hand in hand creating a comprehensive promise, you have a good chance to retain the attention of your audience for the first 10-30 seconds.
And then you need to live up to your promise, delivering the value bit by bit, eliminating the upper mentioned frictions. You need to make sure that the value gets delivered in fractions. Piece by piece. If a 7 minute video has a clear promise to deliver a value in 3 steps, you need to make sure that the third step fills in the 7 minute video. You cannot shoot all your bullets by minute 3. But if you can deliver the 3 points in 3 minutes, then you better do that in 3, not wasting the audience valuable time.
Okay, now let’s look into, how to create compelling stories.
The video crafting fly-wheel
These 5 points are not my 5 points and you can also find them in any good Youtube educators’ break-down material of how a video creation process works, but I had to fit them specifically to my Youtube channel’s needs, because I’m about to enter into a very specific niche: ‘travel experience‘.
Source from Chatgpt
The points speak for themselves, and as you can see, everything starts with an idea. As a future travel channel, these ideas can only breed from the memories of the experiences I’ve lived through.
And the memories of my experiences live in the footage I’ve created. But since I’ve been on this trip for almost 2 years now, my memories have been fading a lot. Of impressions, of situations, of people. How I felt that day, what was running through my head.
So to power the idea creation, I had to come up with another fly-wheel, where the ideas are powered by the footage I’ve created, which brings me to my next point.
Building the video catalog
The reason why I spent a whole week relooking at my footage, is to organize them into a living and breathing video catalog.
Source: Chatgpt
Building the catalog is the first foundational step to start even thinking of the ideas I’ve had in mind. I’m talking about almost 1TB footage coming from 4 different action cameras of 5 months of travel (not talking about the whole travel window, but specifically in Central America). And I haven’t even looked at my phone that has 1.3TB content with the past almost 2 years travels. That is a piece I need to swallow a bit later.
But essentially a pulsing video catalog can power a whole Youtube channel. I will try to not use jargon terms here, it’s enough for you to know that this had to be my step #1.
If I had to reframe this concept, I would call it, the ‘tip of the iceberg’.
The video what is uploaded to Youtube is what you would eventually see as an audience, but to make that work, to start this channel, I’m already laying down the foundation behind the concept.
Source: Chatgpt
The foundation has to be actioned upon, involving heavy research and these steps need to be broken down into a production process – not skipping any step. Without this, it simply cannot work. And even with them, chances are still slim to shine through the competition. So I need to create a unique experience, when you get to watch my videos, you would feel you are actually traveling with me, that brings me to the next diagram below.
The Kiss The Journey experience
I had to think hard on this one. Why would anybody care? Why would this journey be unique? What’s the unique angle? What’s the unfair advantage I have? And after creating a long list of different chapters of my trip, I had to realize that certain patterns come back time and time again:
Being thrown into situations, learning how to swim and start exceling in them.
Source: Chatgpt
You find yourself on a sailing boat not knowing how to sail? Sail it.
Oh, so you eventually crossed the ocean sailing, now what? Find a job.
So you found a job as a boat repair apprentice, not having a clue of what you are doing? Learn it.
Oh, you found yourself on a 24m super-yacht on the middle of the Atlantic having a paid job not actually having an idea of what you are doing? Do it anyway.
You found yourself in Latin America not speaking a word of Spanish? Learn it.
Oh, now you work for a hostel not having an idea how to run it? Manage it.
You’ve got on a motobike, that you don’t even know how to switch grades on? Ride it.
Now you’ve got some fancy cameras but you don’t know how to create content? Just do it.
I could honestly continue on and on, but this pattern kept coming back starting to eventually draw a picture of interconnecting stories that I’ve actually found compelling enough to start thinking of sharing.
The learnings and take-aways from some of these experiences, if well played, could actually provide a unique angle.
So I had this brilliant idea
And this drives me back to the starting point of this blogpost. Filming compelling storytelling is still NOT my superpower. But I think – and feel free to object me on this one – I’ve got quite good at writing. Dropping words down in a natural language just feels effortless. I wrote this whole blogpost in about 3 hours.
So this brilliant idea is:
To film stories, first you need to work out the ideas and the script. SO I would actually draft each Youtube episode transparently in this blog, before it ever gets into the production phase. This would also be sort of a public commitment that I’m about to make a new episode. Then the production steps would be as follows:
- Write a blogpost about the idea and crystalize each thought (this is a step that I cannot actually outsource to AI to keep the core idea original). To quote David McCullough: “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” Every single thought in the blogpost has to be crystal clear. If I can write it down clearly, I can reframe it into a video script.
- Get it summarized by chatgpt into a 1 pager providing bullet points on key thoughts that will eventually be more or less my script
- Revise the script with my own words, ideas, thoughts and language (I still don’t trust fully AI on this one)
- THEN roll into the next phase and follow the steps of the production fly-wheel
Let’s be honest, I have 7-8 readers on each blogpost, so not many people actually care, what’s in here, which gives me the advantage of using this platform freely, for my own needs – and if you actually want to learn about the process, well here it is for you, all transparently.
One more thing. I will not be promoting my published Youtube videos on any platform. I learned about the disadvantages through this video. The simple reason is, that you (and if you’ve got to this point all my appreciation goes to you), as harsh as it may sound, well. You are probably not the main audience for my travel channel. And I feel Youtube knows it better to send it out to the right audience. I have to trust Youtube on this one. So if you haven’t signed up to the channel yet, you can still do it here. Otherwise you can learn more about my travels through these blogposts. Or can back to my channel anytime haha.
Now I have to confess, that I actually wrote this blogpost in a desperate try to procrastinate to AVOID working on my first video. Will I ever get there? That’s still an open question. I don’t know the answer for that, but I can tell you this. Any given situation that makes me think of the design of this channel may – one step at a time, actually bring me closer to the main goal: to eventually kick it off.
Stay tuned.
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