I'm giving up. · Synthesizer School

Mar '22 in Wins🏆

I'm giving up.

That's what I felt like doing a year ago, last March. I started my channel January 3, 2021 (STEP 1) and posted several videos. I was excited and put a ton of effort into it. But then I hit the "Dip". People weren't watching and I got out of bed with a "vulnerability hangover" every day. As my feet hit the ground next to my bed I thought, "I will just stop and delete it all of it. Who do I think I am?" 🤢

Then in April, a video that I had previously posted, somehow latched into ranking in search and started to pick up steady views. I'd like to say that I was strong enough to keep going by myself, but this little push was desperately needed. Mother Algorithm threw me a bone. She's not all bad. 🦴

After that, I took months to put out a few different videos, but not because I was procrastinating anymore, but because I was learning what I needed to learn to put out videos that more matched the vision I had for them. I still wasn't completely happy, but I was getting better on all fronts of the Youtube creation cycle.

By September I was cranking out fresh videos consistently along with breaking up older longer videos and releasing them as more digestible clips. (STEP 2) A few of these then even got picked up by Browse and Search as well.

Plus, I felt like my content was getting better. My first video was no cuts with a title card and a sprinkle of music. Now my edit timelines look like a murder scene. 🔪 I even started to make money on Anchor by releasing my videos as podcast episodes (STEP 3).

By the end of December and into January I had spikes on multiple videos. But then it fell back down. Was I a failure?! No, the numbers just fell back to about November's average, but I had already adapted. The reality is that I had a spike, and I'm still picking up subs. But it won't be exponential every day.

And part of me wants to blame the recommendation system, but I know it's actually on me. I need to make a better product, especially in the thumbnail and title department! Quantity plus quality WILL get seen. I've already seen it happen. Just do it again. And again. And better. And then again.

Attached is my analytics from the past 14 months. I know I haven't grown the fastest. I took Matt D’Avella’s course. It’s called SLOW GROWTH, and I still feel fucking slow. But I'm working on releasing the comparison to others, while appreciating the gains I've made against myself. Hopefully this will help give clarity to at least one other person here.

Looking forward to STEP 4 and beyond with all of you. Because this weekend I hit 50 videos. And I'm not giving up. I'm just getting started.

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