Practice #36 - YouTubers Are Great Storytellers

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,200 One thing that I realized that I was doing wrong lately is I misinterpreted the number one thing 2 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:18,720 that differentiates a successful YouTuber and me because what I thought before was that they just 3 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:26,960 made higher quality videos which was a good interpretation which I think that is still true 4 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:36,480 but then I went on further and tried to extrapolate what their what makes their 5 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:42,920 videos higher quality and mine or not and the thing that I decided was their editing so I 6 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:49,120 decided that their editing was so much better and one type of video that I had in mind in 7 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:57,560 particularly was the hams of videos of the Jeffrey and Adonis videos those were highly edited very 8 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:05,600 like dopamine high all that stuff and then another type of video that I had in mind was my mentor 9 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:14,480 his YouTube channel is super high dopamine high edited videos and they're doing very well so I 10 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:21,680 decided that editing was a thing that I should be focusing on the most and now I'm realizing that 11 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:30,000 that's probably not the best thing and let me explain because I've been focusing the entire week 12 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,560 on editing and not really focusing on how to grow and improve as a YouTuber other than just the 13 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:45,040 editing except for the weekends because the way my schedule works is I basically work on the 14 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:51,520 YouTube video the new champ the new weekly video that I'm gonna post I start working on it maybe 15 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:58,320 on Friday or Saturday and I basically spend the whole weekend brainstorming and then I record it 16 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:07,640 and I have it edited just the raw footage edited by Monday and then Monday is when I actually start 17 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:16,800 to edit the visuals and the the audio and all that stuff and so I realized that that's probably 18 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:25,080 not the best because I was only spending maybe an hour per week focusing on my actual recording 19 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:33,360 abilities because on the weekends I would record seven to nine videos just for practice so I would 20 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:40,840 sit down one day and just crank out seven videos just to practice only on one day a week so I was 21 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:46,800 getting one hour per week of practice on my actual recording ability which I was aware that that's 22 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:54,360 probably not the best and now I'm even more aware of it because I'm realizing that I was flawed in 23 00:02:54,360 --> 00:03:02,400 my thinking that you had to have extremely highly edited videos to have them perform well because I 24 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:11,080 was looking at some like I was researching different things for example the I recently posted a 25 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:17,840 YouTube video called how to get jacked as a high school student which I later changed to how to 26 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:25,440 build an aesthetic body as a high schooler and I realized my mentor told me that he basically 27 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:31,960 explained why he thinks that that video didn't do as well as my other ones and it was because the 28 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:37,680 title and the thumbnail was not very good which I agreed because my analytics definitely showed 29 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:43,880 that I was getting a lot of impressions but I was not getting that much clicks so it was definitely 30 00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:52,240 the title and the thumbnail but so then I had to and then my mentor sent me a video Hamsa's most 31 00:03:52,240 --> 00:04:01,400 popular video is the how to build an aesthetic body no BS guide and I basically copied that thumbnail 32 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:07,520 but when I was looking at that video I wanted to click on it and watch just like the beginning to 33 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:17,080 see like what made his video do way better than minded and I realized that his video was terrible 34 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:23,920 like the editing was terrible but he was just like the way his recording was good like the editing 35 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:30,600 I mean the editing wasn't terrible but it was not nearly as good as what I thought it had to be to 36 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:36,040 have a good YouTube video that's what I'm trying to say I thought that you had to have a super 37 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:44,840 highly saturated highly edited video to be successful on YouTube but he got five million views and it 38 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:52,760 was basically like a slideshow that he recorded and so then I'm thinking I didn't watch the whole 39 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:57,280 video so it might be different later on but I watched like the intro like the first 10 seconds 40 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:05,600 and I'm thinking like this video did super good even without the good editing and so after seeing 41 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:10,360 that video I kind of just like pushed it aside for a little bit because I couldn't extrapolate a 42 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:19,880 conclusion right away and then I saw another video did I even see another video oh yeah so and then 43 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:27,560 the next video that I was working on recording was deleting social media that was the one that as 44 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:34,800 of recording this it posted this morning and after I finished editing that video I wanted to look up 45 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:42,360 like other YouTube videos in that same topic and I wanted to see their thumbnails and so I was looking 46 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:48,240 at the thumbnails and I basically wanted to kind of model my thumbnail off of what the successful 47 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:56,360 videos of that genre or that topic were doing but then I ended up clicking on one of the videos 48 00:05:56,360 --> 00:06:05,920 and it was literally just him talking there was no there was no editing and when I say no editing I 49 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:12,680 just mean no visual edits or audio edits it was just him talking now there were cuts like he cut 50 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:23,960 out pauses and like pride dumb stuff that he said but there was no visual editing and so I'm thinking 51 00:06:23,960 --> 00:06:31,200 to myself after this and then also after the video that I saw like a week before or even like a 52 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:38,640 couple days before I'm questioning it might even do in the right thing and then I kind of just go 53 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:46,520 on with my day again and as you and there's one thing that I do every day twice a day I always 54 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:54,680 sit in silence for 30 minutes two times a day so I always do it in the morning and then I always do 55 00:06:54,680 --> 00:07:04,560 one at night and during this particular day I was I just finished well actually okay let's let's 56 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:13,960 re-re-coup so I just watched this video and then I go on with my day and then I go to bed whatever 57 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:23,840 wake up and then yesterday I go on with my day and I'm just doing my normal stuff I didn't watch 58 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:31,160 any YouTube videos yesterday I just do my normal thing and then I go throughout my day and then 59 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:39,400 at nighttime during my nighttime silence like solitude session I this epiphany pops up in my 60 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:47,160 head I'm just laying there in the darkness just sitting still with my thoughts and then out of 61 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:54,760 the blue I'm like rummaging through my thoughts and just randomly this thing like this phrase pops 62 00:07:54,760 --> 00:08:02,440 up in my mind YouTubers are just excellent storytellers and so I pondered that for a little bit I'm 63 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:08,520 thinking wait you like the difference between me and a successful YouTuber is the successful 64 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:16,840 YouTuber is a very good storyteller and I'm just not my storytelling ability or skills is not up to 65 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:23,840 par yet and so I right away I write it down because I keep my journal I'm basically always near a 66 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:30,240 journal or a notebook I have a journal right next like right on my desk at all times and then I have 67 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:37,640 a journal in my room at all times and then I also have a tiny little travel size like handheld 68 00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:46,400 journal that I keep with also like a tiny little pencil that I keep in my gym bag and then I take 69 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:52,240 that out of my gym bag and go take it with me on a walk every time I go on a walk so I'm always 70 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:58,400 by a notebook because it's extremely important especially when you're doing this like super 71 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:04,920 monk mode that I'm doing right now when your life is like there's a there was a word for it I just 72 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:11,960 read the book called deep work and earlier in that book like in there's two parts the first part is 73 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:20,440 about like explaining why deep work is good and the second part was all about like strategies and 74 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:25,720 tactics to follow to cultivate your deep work better and one of the things there was three 75 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:32,680 different kind of lifestyles that you can live to cultivate your deep work one of them was basically 76 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:37,640 what I'm doing where you cut out all of the nonsense you cut out social media you cut out 77 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:44,160 email you cut out everything bad and then you're just left with your thoughts like you're just 78 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:49,720 thinking all day long so that's why I keep a journal with me all day long because oftentimes 79 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:57,680 I get epiphanies and like the my conscious my subconscious sends me thoughts and things on 80 00:09:57,680 --> 00:10:04,400 how to move forward and so I'm sitting in the darkness last night and this thought comes to mind 81 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:12,200 YouTubers are just good storytellers I write that down really quick and it's pitch black so I don't 82 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:19,040 really know like I'm not good at writing in the darkness and also the thing is that I keep my like 83 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:26,600 in my journal it I have one of those like string bookmark things that's attached to the journal so 84 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:33,240 I open it up to the last page I was on and then I just have to remember like where is that where 85 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:42,680 is there a blank space that I can write on just from memory so I figure out where I can write and 86 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:50,960 I write down like focus on storytelling YouTubers are great storytellers and then I go to bed and 87 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:59,680 this morning I wake up and I'm just like I keep thinking about this and I'm thinking like storytelling 88 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:07,760 and there's so many connections that I made because then I watched a YouTube video on I just looked 89 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:13,520 up because I wanted to learn how to be a better storyteller and I don't want to watch YouTube 90 00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:19,320 videos to learn how to be a better storyteller because there's this phrase that I always follow 91 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:26,120 or that I follow it's if you hear something you forget it if you see something you remember it and 92 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:32,200 if you do something you understand it and when you see or when you hear something that's you 93 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:38,600 watching a YouTube video like you're just gonna forget about that and then if you see something 94 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:44,400 you remember it so if you actually read it like and you see it in text then you're gonna remember 95 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:49,520 it but then if you do something you actually understand it so that's why I don't really like 96 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:56,720 to watch YouTube videos because you don't really get too much value out of them because you tend 97 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:03,560 to forget like I don't I barely even remember the one YouTube video that I watched I actually I do 98 00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:09,760 remember it quite well because I was taking notes but it doesn't matter so I watched this YouTube 99 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:17,560 video because I wanted to look up the best books to I wanted to look up the best books on storytelling 100 00:12:17,560 --> 00:12:26,680 and I just watched the YouTube video the five best storytelling books and I see I just watched the 101 00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:34,840 whole thing through and then in the Google search I like there are two videos by the same person 102 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:40,760 one of them was the top five books and then the under another video was like the top three lessons 103 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:46,000 he learned from storytelling so I decided to watch the top three lessons one as well so I 104 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:52,480 watched the books one and I saw all five books and I quickly wrote them down on my Google docs 105 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:57,880 where I keep my reading list like future books that I might want to read I wrote it down in the 106 00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:03,720 Google docs and then I picked two of the best ones that I thought were best for me right now 107 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:12,760 based off of his description and I ordered them they haven't come yet but then I go and watch his 108 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:19,800 other video the top five like most or there are the three lessons he learned from storytelling and 109 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:26,840 the three things I took notes and last night I told myself I was gonna remember these like I 110 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:36,120 watched the video I took notes and the first one was all about basically describing the character 111 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:44,440 traits of a person so he gave the description of stormtroopers in Star Wars get killed all the 112 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:51,640 time like you just see them getting mowed down by gunfire all the time and how do you feel when 113 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:58,840 they die you don't feel anything like they don't make you sad when you die why is that because you 114 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:05,560 don't know anything about them like they never they're just a faceless suit of armor to us they're 115 00:14:05,560 --> 00:14:11,600 just nothing to us and so when you describe the person and you describe the character traits you 116 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:20,680 say oh this person Johnny he's very funny he's extremely outgoing and he is the life of the 117 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:30,600 party he always comes very well dressed and very he always makes everyone feel very happy every time 118 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:37,880 I'm around him he is making me he just makes me feel extremely blessed to have him as a friend 119 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:47,880 and then just the other day he was shot in the face and killed so that was just a story but like 120 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:58,600 you that was just me practicing and you care a lot more that Johnny got killed because I just explained 121 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:05,320 him I basically said like all these character traits and I basically explained who he is now he 122 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:14,040 is actually now you can actually visualize what he's like whereas a stormtrooper you can't like 123 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:20,200 stormtroopers are nothing to us so it doesn't matter if they get shot in the face to us so that 124 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:29,720 was the first one and then the second one was all about surprise so so I'm walking down the street 125 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:37,560 and walking my dog and in my community there's a lot of dog walkers there's dogs pretty much every 126 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:46,440 block I see a dog being walked and then I'm just walking just like every other day normal and going 127 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:53,720 on this walk and I turn the corner to the next street and then I just see this elephant and I'm 128 00:15:53,720 --> 00:16:03,240 like what I'm in Chicago in a city and there's an elephant and then upon further investigation 129 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:10,440 I see that the elephant actually has a collar and is attached by a leash and then I just see this 130 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:20,280 macho shirtless jacked dude walking this elephant and I'm just standing there in awe I'm just like 131 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:29,320 what is going on am I dreaming or what now obviously that's just a story it didn't actually happen but 132 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:37,800 that is an example of using surprise as a way to be a better storyteller so this 133 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:48,360 surprising thing that happened was one the fact that this guy is walking an elephant and upon 134 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:54,840 reflection of this story I just came up with that story by the way on the spot but upon further 135 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:59,800 reflection of that story I could have made it more surprising by saying it's in the middle of winter 136 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:07,160 in Chicago freezing out it's snowing and then that would set the scene and then I could further 137 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,840 say that there's an elephant which would be surprise number one but then surprise number two 138 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:16,680 is that he's being walked by a jacked dude that's shirtless and the surprise that and then surprise 139 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:22,520 number three would be like he's shirtless in the middle of winter so that could like the surprise 140 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:29,880 element is what keeps people going and in the video he actually explained that they're 141 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:38,440 like people are habitual creatures they're they basically know what's gonna like people 142 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:44,360 can understand patterns and they can understand what what may happen and when something breaks 143 00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:50,920 the pattern and a surprise happens we like it or maybe I don't know I don't remember what happened 144 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:56,280 or what he explained after that but basically breaking the pattern is what keeps people interested 145 00:17:56,280 --> 00:18:04,680 into the story like people kind of zone out or click out when you if you if they can understand 146 00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:09,160 the pattern and know what's gonna happen but if there's a surprise then they're there's they stay 147 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:17,720 attuned to the story and so the third one was actually one part of storytelling that I was 148 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:24,920 familiar with before and he said change which I learned about this originally in a book called 149 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:31,080 expert secrets by Russell Brunson and his word for it was called the journey of transformation 150 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:40,120 it's basically in a story in the beginning of the story people like the person is a certain way 151 00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:45,960 and then by the end of the story this person completely changes and they're on like they 152 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:52,440 went on this journey of transformation so and every single movie that's been successful 153 00:18:53,480 --> 00:19:00,520 has this journey of transformation every single one star wars avengers like superhero movies 154 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:09,720 and even just any like any movie any somewhat successful movie has this journey of transformation 155 00:19:09,720 --> 00:19:17,320 and it makes it it basically creates an attachment it helps to create a bond between the storyteller 156 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:25,480 and the the person hearing the story so those are the three different basically the three 157 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:33,800 different pieces of storytelling that I learned about and this wasn't my intention when I first 158 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:40,600 sat down to record this video I actually was gonna record um a completely different video 159 00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:47,320 topic for this episode but I just started talking and now I just went on this whole tangent but I 160 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:52,840 didn't stop it because I liked where I was going and now what I realized is that this is actually 161 00:19:52,840 --> 00:20:02,440 a good opportunity I've been posting daily podcast episodes on like just posting daily but the thing 162 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:09,160 is like I said earlier I was recording them in batch like in bulk so I was basically recording 163 00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:19,160 seven or nine episodes on Sunday or Saturday or Friday and then I would just forget about it for 164 00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,760 the rest of the week and I wouldn't get any practice for the rest of the week but what I'm 165 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:28,200 realizing now is that well that's a bad first of all because I'm not getting practice but I have an 166 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:37,320 opportunity here because now I can completely change the I can actually I still want to have these 167 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:46,520 this series be practice and one thing that I was thinking about doing was sitting down actually let 168 00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:55,880 me explain so the way this works is I sit down and record the video and then I have to put it into 169 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:04,920 a software to basically tune the sound and make the sound quality better and then I post it on to the 170 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:13,080 podcast and that takes quite a bit like it may take anywhere between five minutes to an hour 171 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:20,600 depending on the length of the video and I do that for every single day and that takes a lot of time 172 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:29,480 out of my day so I have some options here either stop doing the daily practice or at least stop 173 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:40,200 uploading the daily practice because in reality I don't really see much benefit to my growth if I'm 174 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:47,880 wasting a lot of time sitting at my computer waiting for it to load onto the software and just go 175 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:55,640 through that whole process an hour per video potentially or another thing is I could just 176 00:21:55,640 --> 00:22:03,480 maintain the daily practice and kind of change it up a little bit and just practice my storytelling 177 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:08,600 every single time which is kind of what I've been doing but really focus on the storytelling 178 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:15,400 I don't know I'll decide what I want to do I did write down in my journal the other day to 179 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:20,440 stop doing the daily like stop posting daily practice onto the podcast but still actually 180 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:31,720 do daily practices I don't know I'll figure it out but that was the story of why that was just 181 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:36,280 everything that I said I'm gonna end the episode here because I kind of lost track of what I'm trying 182 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:46,280 to say