Insights and Challenges from 6+ Months on YouTube

I returned from my winter holiday in January 2022 with a lot of ideas. I wanted to redesign the layout of our apartment, I wanted to create interior design plans, and I really wanted to create a new YouTube channel.

Several years ago I had created a channel related to hearing loss (I myself wear hearing aids). I was excited to make videos, and I’ve had a handful of those videos do very well considering I just talked into my iPhone camera and put the videos up. I shared my personal experience, and it was incredibly rewarding to see the positive comments of people going through similar things who wanted to connect.

However, I had a lot of trouble getting excited about making videos for this channel on a consistent basis.

For one, I did not, and still don’t, think much about my hearing loss on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. I don’t have to use sign language and my hearing aids work very well to solve my hearing challenges.

I think deep down I also did not want to think about hearing loss that much. I have other interests and hobbies that are more exciting to me.

When I returned home from vacation in January this year, I started a new channel. The Coziness Code.

Inspired by my lifelong love on planning out spaces, moving furniture around, and conceptualizing ideas, this channel instantly seemed like something that I could return to every week to make a video about.

For 4 solid months, I posted every week on YouTube. My videos ranged from under 5 minutes to over 10 minutes, and they were generally much more labor intensive than my simple sit-down-and-talk hearing loss videos.

I’ve found it really difficult to focus on YouTube the past two months, for a variety of reasons, but overall I am pleased with my progress of gaining 500 subscribers in my first 6 months on YouTube.

Now that you know a little of my backstory, I want to share the insights I’ve learned and challenges I’ve faced so far.

Finding what sticks

The biggest insight I’ve had over the course of these 6 months comes from finding the type of video that has done the best on my channel.

You see, interior design channels are plentiful. It turns out a lot of people care about making their homes a nice place to be… who knew?

I initially started out making “search” focused videos that answered questions like “How to create a reading corner” and “How to decorate scandinavian.” I’d record myself talking about these topics and edit in pictures of interiors that illustrated what I was saying.

And while I feel I have good things to say about these topics, it has been hard to escape the realization that there are at least a handful of very popular YouTube channels that have already made videos on these kinds of topics - and made them better.

My first dozen videos received several hundred views, some even broke one thousand views, but I wasn’t seeing any one video really kick off.

Then I made a short, 3 minute video where I showed people my parents mid-century living room and dining room.

This “home tour” style video was very different in style to my other videos. It was set to beautiful, peaceful music, it showcased a real unique home with people (like my Dad and I - and my parent’s cat) living in it, and was a more visually interesting thing to watch.

It got over 26,000 views in a couple of weeks.

This was a real eye-opening moment for me. I realized not only did I enjoy the process of using more creative filming techniques to make the video, I impressed myself with the quality of the final video - and apparently others liked it too.

While interest in the video did die down pretty quickly after the surge, my channel grew by over 400 subscribers, most of those coming from that one video.

What can I take away from this?

I don’t want to compete with dozens of YouTubers making talking-head content about the same topics in interior design. Even though it is likely much easier for these channels to regularly churn out content, I feel that these kinds of channels do not make beautiful content. Useful, yes. But not beautiful.

As someone who appreciates aesthetically pleasing design (who doesn’t?) and who prides himself in his creativity, I want to challenge myself to make cinematic, artistic videos that move people.

I’m currently in the process of learning how to create these kinds of videos in a more systematized, consistent fashion.

Accepting my weaknesses

If the major insights I learned from my first 6 months on YouTube were to not try to beat a crowd at its own game, experiment, and focus in on what works, the challenges I’ve faced have all related to consistency.

I am very good at starting things. I love ideas, I love to plan, I even love to start building and making things.

But I have a lot of trouble with following through to the very end. Often times I get so excited in the beginning, I lay things out exactly how I want them to be laid out, and I start projects with gusto - only to feel dejected when early success gives out to slowed progress, burn out, and excuses for why I can’t continue.

Consistency on YouTube generally means posting regularly, and I had committed to posting weekly (a common recommendation).

When you post weekly, you commit yourself to dedicated practice of the skills required to make a video. The ideating, the writing, the filming, the editing. Every week you practice these things and you get better at them. Some call it Slow Growth. Another term is incremental progress.

And while posting a video once a week sounds reasonable, I’ve learned that the actual execution of this goal is very difficult. Sure I got by posting once a week for about 4 months. But I quickly learned that the grind of working a full-time job and then filming and editing YouTube videos for 8-10 hours extra each week, on top of travel to visit family and time to pursue other hobbies, is no joke.

It is hard work.

When I discovered that people liked my house tour video so much, I was elated. And I quickly set out to go film other places. But I’ve found that if it is hard to make a talking-head video once a week, it is extremely difficult to make a cinematic, beautiful home tour video once a week.

Some expectations have to be reconsidered.

A well-made home tour video takes longer to film (several hours longer) and much longer to edit. It involves having additional filming equipment, and making more creative choices such as which music to use for the video.

I love the added challenge, but I’ve realized that I can’t put out regular home tour videos without making a few changes.

First, I can publish a home tour video every two weeks, not every week. There is still a place for talking-head videos. For one, by publishing a talking-head video every other week, between my home tour videos, I give myself a great buffer between big creative filming projects. I can also explain interior design concepts using some of the beautiful real world footage I’ve gathered as well, making the creation process easier.

Second, even if I’m only publishing home tour videos twice a month, I’ll need help.

I cannot ignore my weaknesses. Instead of fighting and fighting against my own nature to try to force myself to edit for longer and longer to finish my home tour videos, I’ve decided to outsource some of the editing. I’m in the early stages of finding a good editor, but I am excited about the mental RAM that this should free up.

Remember, I feel that I am very good at idea generation, planning out a video, and filming. I have confidence in my abilities to set the creative direction of a project. I feel strongly that I should spend more of my time focusing on those aspects of video making because I know I can do them well, and I enjoy doing them.

Editing to me is interesting, but quickly turns into a drag when I have been at it for 5 hours and still have several hours more to go. I want a mental break. And then I want to move on to my next project.

Leveraging some of the money I earn in my day job to pay a video editor and free up time for myself - and crucially, still get a high quality video out - is worth its weight in gold.

Finally, the last change I need to make is to think more about video making in terms of a system.

Rather than working on one video at a time, I could batch certain parts of the content creation process. I can schedule filming for two properties on the same day or same weekend, I can write out several scripts for talking head videos in the same day. I can do these things several weeks in advance and schedule my videos to be published so I can step off the content creation hamster wheel every once and a while.

I can make template thumbnails, take dozens of photographs of myself to go on those thumbnails in one or two days and outsource the editing of the photos so they are high quality. Again, I can leverage a little time and money up front to make consistent content creation easier.

I can also use habit tracking checklists and calendars and online groups of fellow creators to help keep me accountable and to develop some pride around creating regularly.

All of this really relates to working smarter and working harder. I need to help myself to be successful, and not expect that I’ll grow my channel from simply putting in more and more hours (which I’ve found to be unsustainable for my creative personality).

Final Thoughts

After a couple of really slow months on the video creation side, I am ready to get back to making videos for The Coziness Code. My goal is to reach 1,000 subscribers my the end of August (about one month away), knowing that I am already at 500.

Thinking about what I’ve learned and the challenges I am trying to overcome reminds me of that graph that we’ve all seen showing the success curve. Less a curve and more a squiggly line pointing diagonally up to the right, the graph shows the peaks and troughs that everyone faces on their journey to the top.

I feel confident that discovering which type of video does well on my channel and gaining 500 subscribers was my first “peak.”

Grappling with how to regularly produce that type of video consistently is my first “trough.”

If I can keep going, find a way to produce consistently, and leverage help where I need it, then I'm sure I’ll discover my next peak… and the journey continues.