I stumbled upon this myself, and I share it with you now …
My first YouTube video was embarrassing.
I'm not sure why I keep it around anymore, but here it is:
(That's not quite true. I keep it around to remind myself how far I've come.)
I was afraid to talk in the video. The soundtrack was little more than a canned track from my Yamaha keyboard.
And it took me way longer to create than I care to admit.
Here's how I produce videos more efficiently
1. Find a process that gets the job done
The first time trying a new process will be agonizingly slow. And that's fine.
Write down what you did if it helps, but it's not necessary, really, as you'll see.
2. Repeat it until it’s smooth
The next day (or next business day, if that's your thing) do it again.
Make sure not to wait too long before doing it again. Wait too long and you'll risk starting from scratch mentally, and it will take you nearly as long as the first time you did it.
Creating the same way again will be easier. If you have notes you may have already recognized some efficiencies that you can apply immediately. If they're easy, go for it.
Otherwise, just do the thing again. And again.
And again, again.
Here's what I stumbled on.
Doing little more than repeating my process, parts of editing and uploading a video are muscle memory for me now.
Here's a sampling:
- I know where to go on my phone to start recording.
- I know the things to check before I do a screencast with Camtasia.
- I know where to find the media clips I use when editing the videos.
- I know how to place annotations in the video so that they match my audio track.
- I know the process for checking the required boxes so that YouTube will show my video.
It became that way because I’ve done it dozens of times now.
I'm looking forward to how things will look after hundreds of times.
Am I great at it? I wouldn't say that, but I would say I'm becoming competent at it.
And it took nothing besides doing it over and over. I got faster at it naturally.
3. Add pieces gradually that raise the bar
“Make 100 videos and improve something every time.” ~Mr. Beast
I didn't take this advice initially but I've begun adding something a little extra to the videos.
Maybe it's a transition, or zooming in for a detail, or something else.
The more I add these things, the smoother it becomes to pick and choose what I add where. Eventually I'll be as comfortable doing these things as I am with the basics.
The neat piece is that adding things a bit at a time doesn't usually derail delivering the content. Everything else is smooth, and this one little piece may take a bit of extra time, but not much.
More efficient video production is just the start
We're all at different places in our creator journey.
“I've quit my day job and living off of residual Internet income” is a place.
“I've posted once on Threads” is also a place.
“I'm afraid to start” is too.
I'm somewhere in between, and if you want a peek into what I do from week to week, I invite you to check out my weekly Side Hustler's Progress newsletter. You'll see my wins and my losses, and my thought process as I strive for greater efficiency and effectiveness.
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage people to work for themselves, and on themselves, every day to sleep better at night.
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(Photo by 1981 Digital on Unsplash)