A YEAR IN....
So, I am on Youtube.
Being on the other side is very different. My journey with Youtube started yonks ago. I would say I have been watching YouTube for at least a decade. Let me tell you, watchers of YouTube, whatever you imagine your favorite YouTubers do to create the videos that you love, double the effort!
It is intensive work and I have been humbled and even more inspired. They say you truly have to walk a mile in one’s shoes to know. Whew! Now I know!
A year in, and I am still learning. I love the journey and the way my creativity is being kept juicy. I also love how I have been triggered! Truly every chance we get to create, we expose ourselves to parts of ourselves that we may be ignoring or simply unaware of. For me, two things, in particular, have stood out. My need to be perfect has been challenged. Like, what does perfect even mean? Who am I competing with? Who am I trying to impress? What is ALL this really about? Questions that I have answered (and maybe still answering ) and those answers have given me more room to evolve as a content creator and as a woman. Secondly, the notion of money is the ONLY thing we can get out of our productivity. Don’t get me wrong. As a creator, I believe all creators SHOULD eat from their art. But is that it? Am I just doing this for money? Does it mean that I am failing if I don’t get paid or selected for sponsorships? I realized focussing on the possible financial gains of this journey was making me miss the other things that I AM already gaining from being a Youtuber.
Being on Youtube is helping me be a better influencer. I feel like I can offer more as a skincare influencer as skincare is such a context thing. And context needs conversation. It has also given me a chance to broaden the type of content I create. I have enjoyed and will definitely continue doing my chatty videos where I share my viewpoints. I definitely don’t want rigidity in my channel so having these intimate conversations allow me to stay fluid and open to different types of dialogue on my channel. I love doing my fragrance videos and I will admit I am still figuring how best to do makeup content on my channel. I am not a beauty guru. I am a makeup artist and those are completely two different things! Still figuring it out but also not overthinking it and just going with the flow. Last but certainly not least, I am learning the skill of filming and editing and that is definitely worth going on a CV!
And can I say I love how food content just snuck itself in there! I never ever thought I would be doing food content or even life style content but as I said, there is no room for rigidity round here! I was even mad enough to do Vlogmas! Such an audacious yet enlightening experience. Catch my December shenanigans here!
I am so proud of myself and it’s true what they say. The only person standing in your way is YOU. The only person’s validation you need is YOUR OWN.
Here is to seeing the lessons as we pursue our goals. Maybe that was the point of the goal to begin with. To learn a lesson.