My YouTube Journey (so far)

At some point. it seems like every creator wants to take YouTube a little bit more seriously. I’ll admit I have tried over the years and never really got into it. However, starting year four with my “Seattle Superman” Journey, I need to start taking into account ways to monetize and make money doing creative things I love to do. Even tho I have not really ironed that out yet, I do think making money from YouTube will help. I just need to find something I love to do. Although I think I found it now, lets take a look and see where I started.

Car Confessions

When I first moved to Seattle in the van, I thought it would be kinda cool to vlog about “whatever came to my mind” so I started a little series called “Car Confessions.” I would mount my phone on my dash or steering wheel and just talk from there. I think I only made about six episodes tho. I think I decided to stop doing that because I would rather use my time explore and taking Superman photos. So once I stopped, I just never started back up again.

Montana Life

In July 2018 I got a railroad work contract to work in Sidney, MT. One of the main reasons I took this job was because they paid for my hotel room for 18 months. While there, I got back into YouTube for a bit. I started another series where I would do Beer tastings. I think I did over 60 videos for this. Did not get a lot of views tho. So I decided to give this one a rest.

Next up in while in Montana I decided to Vlog about how my Seattle Superman progress was coming along in a weekly series titles “Wednesday Whatsup” I wanted to document all the different ways I was using social media and what I was doing to build my Brand. Nobody really watched this one either. Although, this was more for me to have videos to look back on, so that one day I can see just how far I have come. After about two months, I stopped doing it.

My Biggest Hang Up when It comes to Youtube

I love music, tv shows and movies. I love doing reactions. However, I was afraid to react to stuff I might not like, just for the views. I do not like voicing my opinion on things I do not find interesting to me. But I LOVE sharing my opinion on things I find enjoyable. So I was scared to Make a lot of reaction videos because I really did not want to “put down” something that did not resonate with me. I knew that if I wanted to Make reaction videos I had to find a way to make it work. And I Believe I did. I would just react to stuff I knew I would love. Problem was, what I like isn’t that that popular or trendy or not huge communities on YouTube. So I never bothered. Until now.

Vermont

March of 2020 I had another job contract that was to take place in Burlington, VT. During this time my favorite band (The Killers) Released a new single. And I thought to myself, I love this band, I am sure I will love this song. I should do a reaction to it. So I did. And it found its way around The Killers Community.

So I decided to just Make reaction videos to music and artist and trailers that were interesting to me. Not stuff I really did not care to see.

Pennsylvania

The Vermont contract got canceled early due to the pandemic. I wound up house sitting for a friend who was stuck in California. Wound up in a suburb area of Pennsylvania about 30 miles outside of Philly. During this time The Midnight (One of my favorite synthwave bands) released a new single. I figured “what the heck” I am going to react to things I like, even if it isn’t that popular. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Apparently There is a whole synthwave community on YouTube I never knew about. And Not really anyone doing reactions to that genre either. So I reacted to each of the singles before their newest album release. Then I reacted to the full album. This was July of 2020.

Kentucky

September 2020 I received another job contract to go work in Kentucky. They were going to pay for my hotel again and I was excited to start taking my Youtube Reactions a bit more seriously. After arriving at my hotel room, I bought some LED lights, went thrifting to find more retro clothes and retro props. Thought of the name “Synthwave and Chill” and decided to hit the ground running.

I downloaded a bunch of VHS effects for premiere and after effects to really sell a retro vibe as well. Gotta Admit, I am having fun with this. Listen to new synthwave music and music that I already love, on camera, for others to chime in and share their excitement with is pretty cool.

As of this writing, this is my latest video.

Somethings Gotta Give

This contract is pretty demanding. Started off 12 hour days 6 days a week, and it is barely slowing down. I have about another 6 weeks to go. Putting this much effort into Youtube Means more Time here and less time on other socials. I’ll admit I have been in Lexington for about 6 weeks now and have yet to go out and take photos of Superman yet. Trying to utilize this space to make as many retraction videos here as I can is cutting into instagram, twitter and tiktok. I found a little bit of a solution tho. This is really teaching me the power of scheduling my content. I admit I don’t use my Facebook business page as much as I should. And now, I will schedule my Facebook post for the entire week. So that kinda works out. For tiktok I have not been doing cosplay as much, because that takes time. Instead, I have been reacting to ASMR sounds. Even tho I have never done that before (and I am sure it threw a lot of people off) I decided to go that route because I can recored about 10 videos in ten minutes, and upload them throughout the day. Still putting myself on the platform and still being able to be “visible” on there. For instagram, my story post have shot waaaaay up. Because I have not been taking pictures of anything new to post, I have been using my stories more to still socialize with people.

What’s Next?

I have no idea. This Kentucky contract isn’t supposed to go past December. So that means I will be out of this hotel room and this set up, I will more than likely have to Make a whole new setup in my van or wherever I end up next. But I am excited, because I know what and how I want to do on YouTube now,

thanks for reading.