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Youtube Brand Execution/Intro/From Apathy/Depression to 4AM 10-12 Hours PASSION.

midnight

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intro--
Hello,
I'm Tam and this is my introduction as well as my execution thread.
I've been visiting the FLF for a while now but haven't really taken the time to interact with any members. As I read about the threads of @biophase, @Envision, @Valier and @Fox and applied ideas/process that they mentioned, I saw my life changed in the past 8 months, more than it had in the last 18 years of my life. Big shoutout to them. I am so grateful for you guys. There are many other names I am thankful for too, so don't feel like you're excluded!
While keeping the ideology from TMF and Unscripted in mind, I was burning with a desire for change as I saw how many of the members were executing, interacting, and just providing genuine value.

I wanted to find a way that I can give back to the forum too, with whatever experience I have, little as it may be.

backstory--
I read TMF and was introduced with the unscripted ideology while I was in college last year, and finished the book in the span of 2-4 days. It clicked, everything MJ wrote was like a direct whisper to me, and it just clicked. It was as if inside me was a tinder that ignited and blazed with the wind of MJ's words.
I had that gnawing in the back of my mind every single day before reading TMF, as I walked to class, as I was pressing weights, as I was talking to people. The feeling of uneasiness about taking a class or reading an article I knew, I was going to forget the next few weeks after the exam. The very same feeling the first chapter of Unscripted talks about. I was being indoctrinated with theory, formulas, and a plentiful of good grades. It was amnesia to how empty I was feeling as I was doing everything a "perfect" college student would be doing. I dreaded every single night back then as I would meditate at 11 pm and stay awake until 2 pm reading MJ and listening to Jock Willink and wondering to myself "WHAT IF".
I have always been an avid weight lifter and when I was in Uni, besides being introduce with entrepreneurial thoughts and screwing around my days with classes I would never use, I wanted to cut down my weight. At first, I was lifting because it was a passion. Then, as my thought process started to develop ideas and plans about entrepreneurship, I became scared and terrified, extremely terrified to the point of apathy. What of you may think? I was scared that I might leave uni and "disappoint my parents". MJ sow a seed and it was taking roots, and the previous seeds of my cultural upbringing tried to fight back. Filial Piety is a big part of my culture if you are wondering.
As days passed, weeks also flew by, I dropped pounds after pounds and was pushing myself way passed my limits in terms of weights.
At one point I was 145 lbs pulling 405 on deadlifts for a few reps.(hindsight, I regret it because while I tricked my mind into doing it, I was out of commission for a while)
Remember how I was passionate about weight lifting?
As I was thinking about leaving uni and dreamt about just saying f it all, I was conflicted with doing the hardest decision, telling my parents I did not see a future at uni. I lift heavier and heavier, ate less, took stimulants, drowned my free time with hours at the cardio machine, for one purpose and ... that is to numb myself. Erase the thoughts. Drown out your inner free spirit.
Silence the dream.
I wanted to not think about making the decision to following my own path.
This continued up till C0VlD-19 forced me to come back home(around Feb-March this year).

As college work died out and the year ended, I thought about what I wanted to do with my life, with the knowledge, ideology, and resources that I have.
Interestingly enough, although I was apathetic and semi depressed, I read this forum every single day to catch a glimpse of what it could be like to achieve the dream, to ignore everything in the back of your mind that stops me from taking action.

Over the next few months...
College was still on my mind, but after learning sales and marketing over the next few months... it was loooooooooong gone. MJ's words became my motto and ethos. I also built the courage to tell my parents my path and that every I was doing was for them, despite all my nerve saying don't do it and tell a lie. I didn't want them to work their whole life and not be able to take a break. I yearned for a better life, not only for me but for them too, and let them know that even if I fail and stumble in the next few years without a degree, that it was okay and that I believe somewhere along the way the dots will connect. I had to believe in my words as I told them and cried, because deep down self doubt was still there. "What if you fail?", "You're throwing so much money away", "You might regret this down the line".

I stumbled on @Fox post and read his web school thread a week after out of college.
You know that feeling when you don't have anything going for you, so you would look at what others are doing, so you could see possibilities beyond your current horizon, and perhaps remind yourself you're STILL ALIVE?
That was what I was doing while reading the thread.

Long story short, I was doubting myself and was a little short on cash, but I said screw it and signed up to his course.
I took the risk of borrowing money from my parents if things didn't work out said screw it, what was there really to lose.
***Key here. I joined not for the sake of making fast cash, but for the sole purpose of learning sales and a new skill that is transformative***
Despite all the resistant that I felt while reading his thread("you can't code at all"/"you're horrible at communicating"/"you don't have enough drive"/ "you are still a kid", basically every inadequacy excuses you can throw at a 19 y/r old), I enrolled in his course. The idea that I could be of value to others and actually learn translatable skills(marketing/sales/web service) propelled me to ignore these doubts.

I've been in his course for over 8 months and made back the money I invested within the first 2 months. I can't tell you how much it empowered me and filled me with confidence, knowing that I can call up people to talk about their business problems, be able to show value in my service, solve their problem, OVER DELIVER, and get paid.

It's priceless.

What I learned from @Fox course was more than just a way to make money, but a way to think when it came to business. As I connected with more people (Big inspiration came from @Isaac Oh and learned about the journey of @GuitarManDan), I dreamt and formulated ideas and possible needs in the market. I didn't see myself doing web design as my only mean to fastlane. If you're reading this, thank you R, Issac, and Dan.

Somewhere before summer, I had to take a break from web design to handle a few family and internal issues and during this time, I spent devising plan that I would execute once I got back into commission.

execution--

The plan I came up with at first started with a web service(had I not learn web design, I would have never thought about messing with web service) that would allow people to connect with each other(social network) and empower them to follow their goals(very similar to what the FLF is doing), but with a spice for millennial like me to be interested in(secret ;)).

As I thought about marketing the service and getting people to actually be part of it and endorse, I devised up a follow up plan to build an audience, as I don't have endless amount of cash to generate ad campaigns.

And that is ... ba dum ba dum ba dum.... drum roll...

A youtube channel. Free marketing.

Though I know... it's oversaturated, time-consuming, and all the limitation of a red sea market.

But, as I read @Valier thread, I discovered something interesting. His personal brand(not the idea/niche) but rather his execution made him stand out and skewed values. He made self-help, entertaining. What I found most interesting after reading James's post a few time is that his production quality increases over time(over-delivering) and his value does not reside in the subscriber count, but rather building trust(CTR/retention-time) with his audience. This is the key frame of mind as I learned about youtube.

For the over a little a month and a half 10-12 hours a day, I've been learning how to edit, story-telling, narration, and a crap ton of other things I've never knew was in play when it came to create a good video... and oh boy there's more to learn :))))))--- that's best part. My content will be, similar James, documentary based, informational, yet entertaining, in the self-help/business/life niche; with the twist that I will be leveraging the community to the service I mentioned earlier as the audience grow bigger. So in short, high-value content is the primary focus and leveraging it comes second. James if you're reading this my friend, you set my standard real high for this personal brand!

The devised execution time for the personal brand is around 10-12 months, and in that time will have around 15-20 videos(better production quality every single upload). If the market does not respond after that amount of time, I will be leveraging other form of organic marketing skills(SEO is the only thing on my mind right now) but I'm sure I can learn more and do more web design clients or will get a job even if I need the capital to launch google/facebook ads.

With that being said, my video just finished rendering so I should probably start editing.
Have a good day :)
 
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midnight

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Oct 7, 2020
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UPDATE 1: First Video
Just got uploaded! You can check it out here.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMD-sgJwGJk&t=10s


That being said, I wrote an assessment of what I learned and what I will work on improving for the next production. All of it is based off of what I researched/learned and my personal opinions.
Takeaways from the first video…

Things I did well
I can say with confidence that I have basic skills needed to script/film video/record voice over/create animations(simple ones)/and edit. That being said, all of these skills can be further polished to create better content+better quality(especially audio), more on that.

I now understand that there’s much more that goes into creating a video other than filming/editing.

For example, you have to learn how to brand(personality/who you are(quirk/jokes/entertainment)/your compelling tagline), market/positioning(thumbnail/title/instagram/audience engagement/learning how to read trends), over deliver(aim to up your quality and improve with every video), and leverage your content(use what success you have/yet to have to build more, this kind of ties in with catalogue--I suggest reading @Valier’s documentation on his journey. James does a really good job at explaining it. Furthermore, it should be noted that I learn A LOT of everything I know about youtube from James).
What do I mean by brand/overdeliver/marketing you may wonder?
There has to be a pay off/a unique quality that your video has, which is different from the rest of other youtubers. If you find that you are creating a youtube channel for the sake of creating and sharing your life story/knowledge, then you are just another “me-too” channel. When you’re a “me-too” channel,
a) you do exceptionally good because your production is amazing, your content sticks, and you are just the 5% or
b) you spend hours on creating videos that you cannot leverage and have to compete with other people who are essentially doing the same things as you, though many have an upperhand because of their current audience size.
*****I strongly believe that starting off as a “me-too” channel can work if you know how to leverage past results and position yourself properly, so proactively replicate with the purpose of innovation. The concept that I was thinking of that’s similar to this is proactively getting a job to fund your fastlane project. A job alone is pure slowlane, but if leveraged correctly, you can have your own fastlane. Similarly, I have intentions of fueling my own original contents as I use what seems to be working, tweaking it as I go. My first video was formatted and marketed in a way that has workrf in the past (Jame’s “Money” Video). Repetitive, but worth repeating, 1) I intend to create my own unique content as I learn more production 2) it is okay to leverage any system that has worked (recently) and model success based on others; however, HERE’S THE CATCH. Proactively understand why the success worked in the past and see where you can tweak for future content.
My breakdown...
For Jame’s Video, it involved 1)Drama(thing’s you were not told) 2)Money(Everyone wants to learn how to make money) 3)Simple and Effective thumbnails that has meaningful color(yellow stimulates strong emotions, especially when it comes to money//think of gold, everyone wants it).
Contents that generally work on youtube: Drama related(entertainment), Big Celebrity Collaboration(entertainment), Money(educational), Challenges(educational/entertainment), Reaction(educational/entertainment), Pranks(entertainment).
Notice how entertainment channels are usually the channels you would expect to have a large subscriber base that comes back to more videos, look at any of the big channels on youtube.
Take this into consideration… If James wrote a video about Money that’s inherently education with the bonus of drama, it becomes both entertaining+educational. Boom. There’s value creation and blending of content. In my point of view, I dare say that this creates new demand/standards in the audience that watch his video(though this is just my opinion, with limited knowledge). They would be much more willing to come back for HIS video instead of HIS COMPETITORS, because he makes education FUN.

Personality and your life story is a factor that goes into video creation; however, it is a highly competitive/invested factor that other creators are trying to optimize as well.

Therefore I have the intention of competing in other areas that are often left open(quality/production/narration).

In my personal brand, I plan to offer entertaining, high quality production, narration, information, with a little bit of humor/personality and a community feature(under-development, so won’t speak much). Notice, the personality aspect is just an added bonus, I’m not competing on it, if anything I’m reducing the need for it as I increase the standard for other factors. The main factors I’m competing on are production quality, entertainment, and building a community(I’ll detail how I plan on doing so as I continue my progress).
The whole point here is not to do what other people are doing and talk (face-to-face) on camera, because I know for a fact that I won’t be as captivating/effective if I’m on camera 100% of the time in my videos(I lack camera skills+am a novice at talking infront of a camera). Therefore the audience retention time(RT) will be not very high if I opt to compete under those factors.
**That is to say though, I will be incorporating face-face clips as I get more comfortable with delivering/talking on camera and better at production.
**By all means though, you can opt for this option and hit it big if you’re good at what you do 1)know your content/deliver effectively 2)are able to position your content in an engaging way(whether it’s through building tension with your information/voice dynamics/music/background or films you create. (I’ve seen a few examples of this in my research)


Things I Did Not Do Well/Will Do Best To Improve Next Time
Audio Quality...

I did a bad job at narration. Due to my lack of exposure/experience, my voice is relatively monotone for most of the video. I dare say what @Valier says about THE FEAR OF THE FIRST VIDEO is true, and that you will be stiff the first time around. I want to change this for my next video and be able to improve it, even if it’s just a little. I hold @Valier’s production quality as a standard when it comes to what I should strive for, so I’ll have much more to learn in that sense.
I see myself learning more about how to manipulate video/vocal enhancement/voice training before editing my next video.
My goal is to have liveliness in my voice+have it clear(no background noise/moderate volume)+have it be engaging enough so that people would want to listen more of it.
Video Quality...
Truthfully, I feel quite awkward and uncomfortable on camera, which results in my production time being longer than it needs to be, which results in unnecessary cuts/edits. This will definitely be optimized as I write my second script. I understand that this issue will fix itself, as it is a function of time and exposure; however, I will proactively put myself in front of cameras more to adapt quicker, planning on doing this with a controlled amount of social media posts that aligns with what my brand stands for(I don’t plan to spend a lot of time on social media as it is quite harmful to my creativity, so everything will be under moderation/control).
Content …
I have never written a script and have little experience in creative writing. I’ve been brought up to write “good” quality academic essays for school, so I am definitely having a hard time writing scripts. That is to say though, I’m going to apply marketing principles to the next one I’m writing AIDA (@Fox taught me while I was in his program) to be specific. My goal with the next video in terms of content is to have a stronger narrative that’s enticing, a little more coherent(flowing well), and more research based. I plan on doing this by practicing with the things MJ’s “9 Writing Tips For A Killer Non-Fiction Book” thread spoke of, especially “eliminating fluff” and “less is more” as well as doing research on videos/practice that has worked in the previous months/year.
Graphics/Animations/Editing...
I learned a few animation/editing tricks, but I can see myself doing much more with motion graphics/transitions. I will be taking a course in after-effects (as what i’ve been doing now is just youtube and experimenting myself. . . nothing formal) and look at how other people effectively use sound effects/music.

---------
Oooooo I’m excited.

If you have any advice/critiques feel free to let me know. Any advice and critique is welcomed! I genuinely want to make the production better and I can't do it without honest/raw feedback :).

That being said thank you for reading.
 

Ernman

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Another broke Youtuber using the forum to advertise his channel.

Rule #3 of fight club, i mean the fastlane forum, no self promotion.
I'll admit that was my first thought.

Then I got to thinking - YouTube is one of many paths entrepreneurs use and we're here to help each other find success. It's hard to get feedback on what you're doing without sharing what you're doing. Folks here share what they're doing on many other paths, so why not YouTube? If all he's doing is advertising his channel, it will become clear soon enough and we'll ignore him. If he is really seeking to share and be a part of the community, that will also become clear and we'll embrace him.
 

Isaac Oh

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Tam, I'm so excited for this journey of yours! Thanks for sharing your struggles and passions. I'm keeping an eye on this.

Please link every video you make!
 

Isaac Oh

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Just watched the entire video. First off, kudos for pushing through and actually shipping your video. I'm surprised how soon you dropped it. Thought I would wait a few weeks.

It's raw and if you're feeling anxious about the type of feedback/criticism you'll receive, that's totally normal and a sign that you're making content that really connects and makes yourself vulnerable.

The video was incredibly engaging and well edited. I can see all the subtle details you put into it, down to the transcription. At times, it might have been too engaging. Familiar Hollywood scenes sometimes made me think of those films. But I didn't wonder even once, "When will this video end?"

If your purpose was to expose all the action faking and BSing people are doing, and instead plant an idea for them to take proper action, I think you did a fantastic job.

Great work Tam
 
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midnight

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Just watched the entire video. First off, kudos for pushing through and actually shipping your video. I'm surprised how soon you dropped it. Thought I would wait a few weeks.

It's raw and if you're feeling anxious about the type of feedback/criticism you'll receive, that's totally normal and a sign that you're making content that really connects and makes yourself vulnerable.

The video was incredibly engaging and well edited. I can see all the subtle details you put into it, down to the transcription. At times, it might have been too engaging. Familiar Hollywood scenes sometimes made me think of those films. But I didn't wonder even once, "When will this video end?"

If your purpose was to expose all the action faking and BSing people are doing, and instead plant an idea for them to take proper action, I think you did a fantastic job.

Great work Tam
Isaac, I really appreciate this brother. Thank you for the honest feedback. I will definitely take note of what you said about the hollywood scenes. I will do my best to surprise you with my follow up works.
 

Ernman

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A very good first effort Tam, congrats! From my experience making vids, I have a very good idea of the time and effort involved in making that video. You also did a good recognizing areas where you need to improve.

You know you need to work on voice overs and speaking. It was monotone. Technically it was also hard to hear.

You are at high risk for copywrite strikes which could jeopardize future monetization.

Some of the typed sequences were either too fast or too small to read.

But again, for a first video, this was very good. Puts my first video to shame. Good job.

What is the long term plan for this channel? In your intro you said you're planning to have 15-20 videos published in 10-12 months. Have you already planned the concept for each? Is there a long term story that will unfold?

15-20 videos is not a lot of videos for the YT algo to figure you out and match you to an audience. This might delay getting recognized on the platform. But nothing is certain on YT. You may be among those rare few that catch on quickly. Notice I said rare few.

My niche, scrapping and recycling, is very different than yours. If you're interested I am Shark Scrapper on YT.

Keep up the great work. Consistent quality content is a simple, powerful but often overlooked reality to success on YT.
 

midnight

Contributor
User Power
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Oct 7, 2020
14
47
UPDATE 1: First Video
Just got uploaded! You can check it out here.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMD-sgJwGJk&t=10s


That being said, I wrote an assessment of what I learned and what I will work on improving for the next production. All of it is based off of what I researched/learned and my personal opinions.
Takeaways from the first video…

Things I did well
I can say with confidence that I have basic skills needed to script/film video/record voice over/create animations(simple ones)/and edit. That being said, all of these skills can be further polished to create better content+better quality(especially audio), more on that.

I now understand that there’s much more that goes into creating a video other than filming/editing.

For example, you have to learn how to brand(personality/who you are(quirk/jokes/entertainment)/your compelling tagline), market/positioning(thumbnail/title/instagram/audience engagement/learning how to read trends), over deliver(aim to up your quality and improve with every video), and leverage your content(use what success you have/yet to have to build more, this kind of ties in with catalogue--I suggest reading @Valier’s documentation on his journey. James does a really good job at explaining it. Furthermore, it should be noted that I learn A LOT of everything I know about youtube from James).
What do I mean by brand/overdeliver/marketing you may wonder?
There has to be a pay off/a unique quality that your video has, which is different from the rest of other youtubers. If you find that you are creating a youtube channel for the sake of creating and sharing your life story/knowledge, then you are just another “me-too” channel. When you’re a “me-too” channel,
a) you do exceptionally good because your production is amazing, your content sticks, and you are just the 5% or
b) you spend hours on creating videos that you cannot leverage and have to compete with other people who are essentially doing the same things as you, though many have an upperhand because of their current audience size.
*****I strongly believe that starting off as a “me-too” channel can work if you know how to leverage past results and position yourself properly, so proactively replicate with the purpose of innovation. The concept that I was thinking of that’s similar to this is proactively getting a job to fund your fastlane project. A job alone is pure slowlane, but if leveraged correctly, you can have your own fastlane. Similarly, I have intentions of fueling my own original contents as I use what seems to be working, tweaking it as I go. My first video was formatted and marketed in a way that has workrf in the past (Jame’s “Money” Video). Repetitive, but worth repeating, 1) I intend to create my own unique content as I learn more production 2) it is okay to leverage any system that has worked (recently) and model success based on others; however, HERE’S THE CATCH. Proactively understand why the success worked in the past and see where you can tweak for future content.
My breakdown...
For Jame’s Video, it involved 1)Drama(thing’s you were not told) 2)Money(Everyone wants to learn how to make money) 3)Simple and Effective thumbnails that has meaningful color(yellow stimulates strong emotions, especially when it comes to money//think of gold, everyone wants it).
Contents that generally work on youtube: Drama related(entertainment), Big Celebrity Collaboration(entertainment), Money(educational), Challenges(educational/entertainment), Reaction(educational/entertainment), Pranks(entertainment).
Notice how entertainment channels are usually the channels you would expect to have a large subscriber base that comes back to more videos, look at any of the big channels on youtube.
Take this into consideration… If James wrote a video about Money that’s inherently education with the bonus of drama, it becomes both entertaining+educational. Boom. There’s value creation and blending of content. In my point of view, I dare say that this creates new demand/standards in the audience that watch his video(though this is just my opinion, with limited knowledge). They would be much more willing to come back for HIS video instead of HIS COMPETITORS, because he makes education FUN.

Personality and your life story is a factor that goes into video creation; however, it is a highly competitive/invested factor that other creators are trying to optimize as well.

Therefore I have the intention of competing in other areas that are often left open(quality/production/narration).

In my personal brand, I plan to offer entertaining, high quality production, narration, information, with a little bit of humor/personality and a community feature(under-development, so won’t speak much). Notice, the personality aspect is just an added bonus, I’m not competing on it, if anything I’m reducing the need for it as I increase the standard for other factors. The main factors I’m competing on are production quality, entertainment, and building a community(I’ll detail how I plan on doing so as I continue my progress).
The whole point here is not to do what other people are doing and talk (face-to-face) on camera, because I know for a fact that I won’t be as captivating/effective if I’m on camera 100% of the time in my videos(I lack camera skills+am a novice at talking infront of a camera). Therefore the audience retention time(RT) will be not very high if I opt to compete under those factors.
**That is to say though, I will be incorporating face-face clips as I get more comfortable with delivering/talking on camera and better at production.
**By all means though, you can opt for this option and hit it big if you’re good at what you do 1)know your content/deliver effectively 2)are able to position your content in an engaging way(whether it’s through building tension with your information/voice dynamics/music/background or films you create. (I’ve seen a few examples of this in my research)


Things I Did Not Do Well/Will Do Best To Improve Next Time
Audio Quality...

I did a bad job at narration. Due to my lack of exposure/experience, my voice is relatively monotone for most of the video. I dare say what @Valier says about THE FEAR OF THE FIRST VIDEO is true, and that you will be stiff the first time around. I want to change this for my next video and be able to improve it, even if it’s just a little. I hold @Valier’s production quality as a standard when it comes to what I should strive for, so I’ll have much more to learn in that sense.
I see myself learning more about how to manipulate video/vocal enhancement/voice training before editing my next video.
My goal is to have liveliness in my voice+have it clear(no background noise/moderate volume)+have it be engaging enough so that people would want to listen more of it.
Video Quality...
Truthfully, I feel quite awkward and uncomfortable on camera, which results in my production time being longer than it needs to be, which results in unnecessary cuts/edits. This will definitely be optimized as I write my second script. I understand that this issue will fix itself, as it is a function of time and exposure; however, I will proactively put myself in front of cameras more to adapt quicker, planning on doing this with a controlled amount of social media posts that aligns with what my brand stands for(I don’t plan to spend a lot of time on social media as it is quite harmful to my creativity, so everything will be under moderation/control).
Content …
I have never written a script and have little experience in creative writing. I’ve been brought up to write “good” quality academic essays for school, so I am definitely having a hard time writing scripts. That is to say though, I’m going to apply marketing principles to the next one I’m writing AIDA (@Fox taught me while I was in his program) to be specific. My goal with the next video in terms of content is to have a stronger narrative that’s enticing, a little more coherent(flowing well), and more research based. I plan on doing this by practicing with the things MJ’s “9 Writing Tips For A Killer Non-Fiction Book” thread spoke of, especially “eliminating fluff” and “less is more” as well as doing research on videos/practice that has worked in the previous months/year.
Graphics/Animations/Editing...
I learned a few animation/editing tricks, but I can see myself doing much more with motion graphics/transitions. I will be taking a course in after-effects (as what i’ve been doing now is just youtube and experimenting myself. . . nothing formal) and look at how other people effectively use sound effects/music.

---------
Oooooo I’m excited.

If you have any advice/critiques feel free to let me know. Any advice and critique is welcomed! I genuinely want to make the production better and I can't do it without honest/raw feedback :).

That being said thank you for reading.
CONTINUTION
Researching on scripting/content improvement


Looking at channels like Mr.Beast, Dream, and Matt D’avella, I find a common theme shared between them. The one big takeaway that I notice is this
  1. The first few seconds/minute(depending on how long the introduction is) into the video sets up the tone for the rest of the content. The editor from Yes Theory calls this the “cold open”, a concept that leaves the audience wondering what’s more in the video(usually it should be a positive emotional piece, preferably related to the climax of your video). **that is to say it could be negative, if that’s the emotional peak of your video. Now I know it’s obvious as you watch the video yourself and think of course they would do that, but when it comes to actually writing a script you’re much more inclined to write on something YOU find interesting about the topic and NOT FOCUS ON what the AUDIENCE actually find interesting.
  2. Make sure to have your content be a roller coaster of emotion. The whole purpose of this is to have the audience engage with your video and be fully captivated. This is fairly easy when it is said, but probably the hardest in practice, as it not only asks that you be affluent with editing, but with SFX, narration, and music as well. A key takeaway here is that before even putting a word down is to have a clear image of what you want your product to be, what you want your viewers to feel and get out of your production. So far, one of the biggest concepts that has helped me with my second script is MJ’s rule of outlining concepts before writing(more about this in his thread on how to write a killer nonfiction).
→ the guide I’m following for emotional writing is this, positive emotional insertion followed by negative(or rather less positive) insertion information/statement(actually if you watch “The Untold Truth Of Money”
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mRbDEtDoyA&t=87s
you can see how James utilizes this super well). In my personal experience with the marketing formula AIDA(here is you’re interested in learning more
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3-uY4pOdq0
), you start off with grabbing attention, followed by stirring interest, desire, and offering an opportunity for action. This formula applies just the same to writing something compelling. Often in order to get from the first A to the second A in the formula, a customer/client has to go through a process of reflection(negative circumstances of their life) and positive prospect of their future(positive payoffs that your product mentions/introduces) before concluding that your product is a good fit. That being said, the negative information often brings more value to what your positive information is, thus raising tension in your content and leading to the audience wanting to listen and see what payoff they’ll get. With that logic, the engagement of your production is slightly higher in probability. That being said this is how I apply the AIDA principle to writing script/content, I probably will use this principle once I start creating the thumbnails/titles.
 
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Ernman

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Tam - I'm going to follow this thread for a number of reasons. Like you I am using YouTube, albeit in a very different niche, as part of a grander plan. Unlike you, I am what they call "long in the tooth". I spent many years in the slow lane, always believing there was something else. TMF and UNSCRPTED clarified the something else and my FTE occurred shortly there after. I've been hard at it for a year now and the journey is wonderful. I look forward to sharing your progress.
 

midnight

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Tam, I'm so excited for this journey of yours! Thanks for sharing your struggles and passions. I'm keeping an eye on this.

Please link every video you make!
I'll make sure to. First one should be arriving sometime before the 25th!
 
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midnight

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Another broke Youtuber using the forum to advertise his channel.

Rule #3 of fight club, i mean the fastlane forum, no self promotion.
If I do come across as a person who advertise his channel, I apologize. My intention is to give value as I go along the way. I found so much information from @Valier's post that I thought if I were to make something similar, I'd document my journey as well. People might find it useful/helpful I believe if I document my mistakes/breakthrough. I don't know who's going to read this thread as I post along the way, but if they can find anything valuable in my posts(even if it's just a small sense if inspiration) then I am happy. If I'm breaking guidelines as I post, I hope you can can let me know what's appropriate. This brand means a lot to me, but what means even more is the skills and calibration I learn along the way as I create the channel and if I can share what I learn with people, then it's even better. let me know, thanks for the guidance.
 

midnight

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Tam - I'm going to follow this thread for a number of reasons. Like you I am using YouTube, albeit in a very different niche, as part of a grander plan. Unlike you, I am what they call "long in the tooth". I spent many years in the slow lane, always believing there was something else. TMF and UNSCRPTED clarified the something else and my FTE occurred shortly there after. I've been hard at it for a year now and the journey is wonderful. I look forward to sharing your progress.
Glad to have you here! Hopefully you can give me some critiques and guidance once I get my first uploads up :)
 

midnight

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A very good first effort Tam, congrats! From my experience making vids, I have a very good idea of the time and effort involved in making that video. You also did a good recognizing areas where you need to improve.

You know you need to work on voice overs and speaking. It was monotone. Technically it was also hard to hear.

You are at high risk for copywrite strikes which could jeopardize future monetization.

Some of the typed sequences were either too fast or too small to read.

But again, for a first video, this was very good. Puts my first video to shame. Good job.

What is the long term plan for this channel? In your intro you said you're planning to have 15-20 videos published in 10-12 months. Have you already planned the concept for each? Is there a long term story that will unfold?

15-20 videos is not a lot of videos for the YT algo to figure you out and match you to an audience. This might delay getting recognized on the platform. But nothing is certain on YT. You may be among those rare few that catch on quickly. Notice I said rare few.

My niche, scrapping and recycling, is very different than yours. If you're interested I am Shark Scrapper on YT.

Keep up the great work. Consistent quality content is a simple, powerful but often overlooked reality to success on YT.
Hey Ernman,
thank you for the comment. I will definitely take the copyright note into consideration for my next uploads. In fact, my aim is to use less of movie clips and more of animations/infographics/graph(tackling an adobe after effects course for the next few days as I research and write my script).

I've written out a draft for the catalogue of uploads for the next few months(about 8-10 videos in total), positioned in a way that it would add on to each other(in terms of content) and systematically relate to the timeline of the year, especially New Year and December(the upcoming videos will be around fear/acting despite of resistant/goal setting).

The main vision for this brand is to get people to want to set goals/dream big, believe that they can achieve them, and execute on them. That's the essential theme of the channel, hoping to build a community around this audience because I know the market for people having goals and being empowered to reach those goal is relatively high.

That being said, I have lots to work and learning to do before I can have anything of real quality and content. All I got going for me is 10-12 hours a day and a vision, no real skills to back it up yet haha. Thank you again Ern for the honest feedback. I appreciate your time.
 
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sparechange

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Another broke Youtuber using the forum to advertise his channel.

Rule #3 of fight club, i mean the fastlane forum, no self promotion.
 

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