On October 11, 2009 I made my very first YouTube appearance. This morning I was looking for something on my channel and after going down the rabbit hole of YouTube I ended up on my very first video. It is weird watching yourself. It is weird to see where you were mentally as a person in the past.
At the time I was nervous to post a video of myself. I don’t think we were quite to the brink where it was no longer a big deal to take a selfie or make a video of yourself. I pulled up my old blog just to grab the context for what I was doing/teaching when this video came out.
Clearly, I had an agenda of being a book reviewer. My blog was loaded with YA reviews for a solid 2.5 years. Actually, this was the primary purpose of the blog for why it was started. It is crazy to see how it has evolved over time as I find my voice, shift what I view as important, and the goals I have for myself. As I write this about my blog I am currently clearing out the Nerd Factory of books. So far I have donated 150 YA books to the public library. Many are brand new or only read once. What a complete reversal of times as now I mostly only read non-fiction.
Watching the video I see a timid person scared of a video recorder. Reading the comments further proves the point.
But the fundamental difference is that I went for it. I gave it a try and I have not given up. As of this morning I have made 531 videos on my YouTube channel. 500 are bad and not worthy, but I am learning. Each day I learn. Each video I learn. The goal is not popularity, but sharing ideas that I think are important. It does not matter if they have 25 views or 25,000. I have videos all over the board in terms of popularity.
I encourage you to do the same. You don’t have to make a video. But I challenge you to go for it. The question, “What if I ……….” should be changed to, “I can’t believe I……..!”
Make it happen. You might just like the result.
I mean without starting with that one simple video, I would have never reached a pinnacle like doing the Cosby Show dance(by the way this is what I was trying to mimic). Just listen to my tone of my voice. The confidence has grown in that short span of less than a year. I had a different presence to the camera.
What are you doing? What are going for? Let me know. I would love to hear the stories.
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