[Thriving Creator Podcast] Episode 1: Take off - Why you need to start a YouTube Channel and the serendipity of life

Hello, and welcome to this episode. This is my very first episode. So if you’re listening, thank you so much for being here. I thought it was only fitting to start my podcast by talking about the importance of your YouTube channel as a mechanism to help you get your message out there, but also as a way of connecting with people who really need to hear what you’ve got to say.

Episode 1: Take off – Why you need to start a YouTube Channel and the serendipity of life – Podcast Transcript

Hey Thrivers, I’m Sara Nguyen, creator of Thrive Video Academy, and I’m here to help you go from stuck and overwhelmed to becoming a confident, profitable and thriving creator. Join me here each week.

For honest conversations about what it really takes to become a successful YouTube creator without compromising your creativity, sacrificing cheeky drinks with people you love or downtime for yourself. You’ll hear about the hard lessons I’ve gone through so you can avoid making the same slow and costly mistakes on your journey, as well as my secret weapons to help you dig deep and do the work it takes.

I’m so honoured and grateful to have the opportunity to share this together with you right here on the Thriving Creator Podcast. I’m glad you’re here. Let’s get started.

Now, when I first started my YouTube channel, it was probably a good two years between thinking about wanting to do it, and then actually taking the steps to get all of the technical side of things happening, the YouTube account up and running, figuring out my camera and what I wanted everything to look like.

Many years ago, when I was working with a big influencer. She had a massive following and I was someone behind the scenes helping her grow her business, online presence, doing social media management.

And I learnt so much from the work that I did with her. There was one day we were chatting and I said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about starting a YouTube channel so I can like, you know, build an audience, help people’. What I wanted to hear from her was, ‘That’s a wonderful idea. You’re going to be amazing! Go, go, go, go!’ but spoiler alert, it was not.

Instead, I vividly remember her saying to me, ‘Well, if you create a brand now, no one knows who you are. So you’re really going to have a hard time convincing people to listen to you’. I recall thinking about how hypocritical what she said was because when she first started her brand, she wasn’t known in her field.

She didn’t have a career in her niche at the very beginning, no one knew who she was and she too started from zero followers and views. Her career prior was nowhere even remotely related to what she was doing then.

And I had witnessed her dedication to creating an enormous amount of quality content. And that was what led to her being able to establish authority, to grow a following, to build a personal brand and business. Therefore, who was she to tell me that I couldn’t have the same success?

She had done it, why not me too? I wish that I could say at this point that I didn’t listen to her, but that wasn’t the case, at least not right away anyway. In addition to her voice of doubt, I had my very own doubtful voices. Am I worth it?

Do I have what it really takes? Who am I to do this? Can I make this happen and pull it off? Are people going to laugh at me? Am I enough?

Who’s going to listen to what I have to say, and I’m not blaming her for the fact I didn’t pursue YouTube creation at that point. I really believe we have to take responsibility for our actions and inactions.

Once we take complete and extreme ownership for everything that happens in our lives, it becomes incredibly empowering. A couple of years later down the track, I reached a point where I had become tired of being the person behind the scenes, it really ate at me because I knew that this connecting with content on YouTube and video was something that I needed to do.

I had a lot I wanted to say, create and share. I’ve always believed in the serendipity of life. Therefore, if you have something to say, there is someone out there who needs to hear it.

But if you don’t create, you’re denying the world of the ability to discover and share in your brilliance. There will be people who discourage you, whatever their reasons are. The world is full of naysayers, pessimists, and non-believers.

But as the quote by Terry Cole-Whittaker says, ‘What you think of me is none of my business’. It’s up to you. And it’s up to me to filter through the noise and not let self-doubt and other people’s voices stop us.

Since I’ve started my YouTube channel and embarked on this journey on YouTube, it’s brought me connection and success that I’ve never anticipated. There’s the monetary gain I’ve enjoyed from ad revenue, brand deals, core sales, affiliate sales, all as a result of YouTube.

And don’t get me wrong. This side of YouTube has been very rewarding, but what has been even more fulfilling is the real connection I’ve experienced. And I know this sounds corny and cliche’, but having the likes of you, listener, tuning into this podcast right now, as well as everyone who watches my videos, I get messages weekly from people around the world who told me that I was able to help them in some way.

It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but that’s an episode for another podcast day. Ultimately, I’m here to tell you that if you’ve been contemplating a YouTube channel, whether this has been a desire you’ve had for years or recently something thought about, knowing that you need and you want to do this in order to connect and get your message out there but you’ve had doubt whether you should, or you could, I’m here to tell you that you are enough.

That you’re probably overqualified, but let’s start off a little bit humble that, yes, this is something you need to do. And you can do it. If you take the steps now to create and grow your YouTube channel, the world literally becomes your oyster and the opportunities that will open for you and the possibilities are infinite, but it can only happen if you take the first step.

But then I think about what life would look like for you a year from now? Where will you be after you’ve stepped into the challenge of starting a YouTube channel, 12 months down the track?

How much meaning will you create and have by helping someone else do something that is meaningful to them through your videos? I’m so excited for you and for your spectacular journey, my friend.

I cannot wait to see you take off and soar. You’ve got this! One last thing before I go, I created this podcast as a reminder that you are not alone in this. Growing with video is hard, and I want to be here to help and guide you and others through it.

If you found this podcast episode helpful, please leave a review. This helps Apple and the algorithms put my podcast in front of more people just like you. I’d be incredibly grateful. Thanks for listening.