[Thriving Creator Podcast] Episode 20: A brave new world - How to create videos for YouTube when life changes and you don't have time

Hello, and welcome to this episode. One of the biggest, best things has happened and it’s literally turned my world upside down. I had a baby! My husband and I welcomed our daughter, Kai, into the world in October 2021…just after a long and stressful 4-month lockdown in our city – Sydney. In today’s episode, I will be talking about navigating life as a creator when you’ve just had big ass changes.

Episode 20: A brave new world – How to create videos for YouTube when life changes and you don’t have time – Podcast Transcript

Well, so one of the biggest, one of the best things has happened. And it’s literally turned my world upside down. I had a baby! My husband and I welcomed our beautiful daughter, Kai, into the world in October, 2021. Just after a long and stressful four month lockdown in our city in Sydney.

In today’s episode, I’m talking about navigating life as a creator when you’ve just had huge ass changes. And I’ve heard from creators recently, and the thing that I’m hearing a lot is that they’ve got YouTube channels and they want to grow.

And at the same time, they’ve had big things happen, big changes. And what’s happened is they don’t have the time that they used to. So, how do you navigate this in your brave new world? Hey Thrivers, I’m Sara Nguyen, creator of the Thriving Creator Academy.

And I’m here to help you go from stuck and overwhelmed to becoming a confident, profitable and thriving YouTube creator. Join me here each week. For honest conversations about what it really takes to be a successful YouTube creator.

Without compromising your creativity, sacrificing cheeky drinks with the 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 honoured and grateful to have this opportunity to share this together with you right here on the Thriving Creator Podcast. I’m glad you are here. Let’s get started. The one thing that we can be certain about is that life changes.

Whether that is like my fellow YouTube friend, Paul, who landed a huge job promotion, which now has him traveling more and doing the work he loves and he’s completely enjoying it. Whether it’s like one of my students in my YouTube course, a Thriving Creator Academy, Tiffany, who just moved countries and is traveling and homeschooling her daughter.

So she moved from the US to the Dominican Republic and is having this amazing, incredible life there now. Or if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen all of my baby spam posts in my Instagram stories. I’m delighted. I’m excited.

I’m exhausted and overwhelmed as a new mama to my daughter. What I wanted to unpack today was the reality of what it looks like as a creator on YouTube and as a business owner, when life changes. And how we can really manage our time to keep going on YouTube without burning out.

I feel that it’s really easy for people who were full-time creators, who don’t have full-time jobs. Outside of YouTube who don’t have families, who don’t have health issues or who aren’t responsible for other people to say, if you want to succeed at YouTube, you need to hustle and you need to grind and you need to give it everything that you’ve got.

Spend every spare waking minute to dedicate yourself to YouTube. And I don’t begrudge these people who have lots of free time. Before my daughter was born, it was just my husband and I, for the most part, work-life balance was tricky. But with YouTube, it was still doable. Now the whole work-life balance in YouTube is a whole other thing, because I need to prioritise my little one who needs me.

Between feeding and nappy changes and settling time and awake time and all the increase in washing I need to do, life has completely changed. And not just in my experience, what I’ve seen that happens with lots of YouTube creators is that we start our YouTube channels, we create videos and we get into the rhythm of developing and releasing videos and then things change and then life happens.

Where and how do you find the time to do YouTube and YouTube business when the time you previously had has significantly decreased? Instead of listening to advice, like just get up earlier and sacrifice sleep to get things done or do as much as you can when you’re not working.

I really feel that we can have a better, more useful conversation. In my view, I don’t feel that everything, YouTube or life needs to be viewed as this zero sum game, just because you have a significant life vent or change in life, doesn’t mean you then have to give up on YouTube and abandon all of the effort, all of the subscribers that you’ve gained over the time, over the years.

And on the other side, in order to succeed on YouTube, it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice every waking moment and say no to every life opportunity. It really doesn’t. It is possible to have both. And it’s all a matter of structure, give and take.

So how do you manage YouTube with a baby, a new job, an illness, a lifestyle change, or insert your thing here? The first step is to create more space. When you have a big life thing happen, instead of burning yourself out from the moment it happens trying to keep everything going as if nothing has changed, even though it has, it’s important to take a breath and pause for a moment.

For me, from the moment of giving birth to coming up to now this just over a month of recovery, there’s basically been no content released on the channel. And I’m taking a break from YouTube, uploading, recording, and creating. And whilst I had great plans to be super organised and better code content, I went into labor a week earlier than expected.

And that plan for all those videos didn’t quite happen. So they’re kind of half recorded and unedited. I thought I had another week or so, but that just wasn’t the case. So the best intentions were there, and this is life, instead of beating myself up about it, I’ve given myself grace for the fact that I’ve had a baby.

There is a lot going on and YouTube just had to wait. And if you’re afraid that you lose all the gains you’ve made on your channel, because you’re taking a break on YouTube, I released a video podcast on this very topic. And I dig into the reality of what you think will happen versus what will really happen on YouTube.

And spoiler alert, everything works out. Your YouTube channel won’t vanish and you won’t end up in YouTube prison just because you needed to take a break or some time out for your own mental wellbeing. Whilst I’ve been in recovery post pregancy, I see how much pressure people put on themselves, especially in the YouTube and business space where they feel they need to be superhuman.

They feel that they need to do it all. Keep the house in order, to keep the business going. Like you don’t have any other responsibilities. If you’ve had a baby or if you’re going through some big stuff or have difficult emotions, cut yourself some slack.

And be okay with not showing up on YouTube for a little bit. Know that YouTube will be there when you return. But these moments and this time I get to spend with my newborn daughter, I don’t get to do that time over, so I don’t want to miss it. And I choose her.

I also want to say that in order to create some space, you need to stop comparing yourself to other people. It’s so easy to do. And I do it all the time and I have to stop myself. I see creators in the same niche as me, and it’s easy to see their progress and the part of their lives that they share on social media and then really feel bad about yourself.

It’s easy to think they’ve grown so much and they seem to be managing everything and happy. Why aren’t I further along or why aren’t I doing more? But this type of talk and comparison is not helpful. And the reality is you really don’t know what someone is going through just from their social media posts or the lack of social media posts that you see, or don’t see.

It doesn’t help you. And it doesn’t help me and it doesn’t make us feel good. So we need to stop it. You are on your own journey. And the pace you go at is the pace that you go at. Step two is to manage your overwhelm. I understand how overwhelming new life events can be.

And in my experience, the way to manage your overwhelm is to get organised and break down what needs to be done with each area of your life. So for example, for the YouTube area of your life, I want you to take inventory and make a list of everything that you do for YouTube.

Look at this list and see what things are you duplicating? For example, are you creating new animations and overlays for every single video? Can you create or purchase templates that you adapt each time instead of building them from scratch for each video?

I want you to also look at some of the tasks that you do. What can you either outsource or invest in software to automate so that it cuts down the time that you need to produce or the time that you need to complete the task. So for example instead of creating youtube thumbnails manually yourself can you afford to pay someone on fiverr.com $5, $10 to do it for you and save the two to three hours that it takes you on average?

It really is about you stopping, trying to jam more things into your life and instead look at what can you take away and what can you give to someone else? Or what can you look to automate with software?

In terms of automating with software, it may be investing in software that schedules your social media posts for you so you’re not doing the time consuming tasks of manually publishing live every time. Other tools that I’ve used to help me cut down production time and the hands-on time where I’m creating content is one of the new ones is Jarvis.ai and I really love that.

It’s a copywriting tool that helps me write my content and I use it for writing my YouTube scripts, YouTube descriptions, social media posts. And it’s absolutely brilliant. You have to try it out. Check out the link in the show notes to it. You can get a free trial and it will completely change the way that you create your content. I digress.

Descript is another amazing video and audio editing program, and you can use it to edit your podcast, episodes, your YouTube videos, and it changes the game because it allows you to edit your media files like you’re editing a word document.

And it significantly decrease the time it takes me to produce my podcasts, like the ones that you’re listening to now and my YouTube videos. Something that I could also do is train a virtual assistant to use Descript as well, to do this task for me. I want you to be really honest and to look at what you can let go of and let someone else do, and to get out of your own way so that you can get more done without burning out.

So personally I have a virtual assistant who works part-time for me, I love her, her name is Kristina. She’s been with me for quite a few years now. And she helps me with things such as scheduling my social media posts, pinning on Pinterest, doing weekly website backups and reporting.

Things that I used to do, but I let go of and train someone else to do. And once I did that, it freed my time and I was so happy that I had been replaced for these tasks. And I know that you will feel the same freedom once you allow it as well.

And I know that for some of you letting go of that fun and busy work, like video editing, graphic design, and getting someone else to do it for you can feel a little bit scary because you believe that no one else can do it like you do, or it’s your vision, it’s your baby.

And I’ve seen that, particularly with video development, things like editing, transcription, scripting, all of these things can be outsourced by a professional who can do it really efficiently for you. And by doing this, this gives you back time. So you don’t burn out and you don’t start to resent your YouTube channel or your business.

And it increases the quality, the speed and consistency of the videos you put out, and you just really need to be willing to give it a try. In terms of managing life. I think the same treatment needs to take place. So you need to take inventory of all the things that you do with the new circumstance that is now your life.

So for me, I need to take an inventory of everything that I do in my life with a newborn now, and look at the list of what you do. So for things from cleaning to chores, to looking after the child, to cooking, to supporting all the people in your circle of friends and family in life, all the things that you do, all the tasks that you take on that consume your time, write it down.

And from that list, look at what you can get rid of, right. Look at what you can delegate and get someone else to do. You’re hearing the theme here, you’ve got more stuff that’s come into your life. Your job now is not to see how much more you can add to your plate to get done, it’s how much you can get rid of.

Right. What can you delegate and get someone else to do, someone else in your family or hire someone else to do or barter with someone else to get them to do or automate. And before you say, I don’t have family around who can help.

And I can’t afford to hire help such as a cleaner or a maid or a nanny. I want you to take extreme ownership of your life because the reality is that if you want more time to do the things that you want, like grow a business, like grow a YouTube channel, you need to be willing to let go of the things or to find a way to get help in order to do the things and to make time to do the things that need your attention.

And I want you to think about how you can get creative to get help. I completely understand what it’s like to not have lots of family around to help you ’cause that’s a situation that I’m in at the moment, but whether it’s you reaching out to your circle of friends and seeing if anyone is available and looking for work or looking for something to do or wanting to help or doing some sort of trade or barter with people that you know, or people in the community or groups that you’re a part of.

If this is what you really want, how can you find help and make it work? What if you had no choice, what would you do? What hacks or shortcuts can you implement to save time? For me, one of the things that I’ve done, and it’s a really simple thing as well is I purchased a robot vacuum cleaner on sale to save me some time each week, cleaning the floor.

And honestly, I didn’t want to do that task even before I had a baby. But now with the baby, here not having to vacuum and sweep the floor and spend the half hour that I would spend doing that task allows me to do other things as well.

Other shortcuts that I’ve implemented in my life to buy me back time. It’s things like finding healthy, ready made meals or ready made meats from the local butcher that I can simply cook up at home and that cuts down my meal prep time. Right. So what can I do to get me a little bit of time to allow me to work uninterrupted?

I’ve also negotiated time with my husband to look after the baby for a few hours each week. And I’m working on adding more care options for her. And I too, am looking at how I can get creative to make this work. Do what you need to do.

Get creative, ask for help, importantly, take responsibility to find ways to make it happen and to create more time for yourself. Step number three is to get structured and to put systems in place. The more structure that you have, the better.

In my signature course, YouTube course, the Thriving Creator Academy, I teach you how to create systems for your YouTube workflow, from the keyword research, so that you’re finding videos, topics that people actually want to learn about, to the production, the filming, the editing, all the workflows, so that you know exactly what you need to do at each step of the YouTube process and how to manage it all.

If you haven’t already, you need to put in place structure for your YouTube videos. What I don’t want you to do is to be winging it anymore. Any of it, from what you’re going to record to how you’re going to edit, because that’s where lots of people waste time.

For your video recording, you need to have an outline or a script before you turn the camera on. For your video editing, you need to have frameworks for your videos. So you know exactly how you edit each video. No more creating animations and overlays as you go. These need to be determined and consistent for all of the videos.

I’m talking about having templates and structure on how you do each one. Now in terms of your life, I’m a big believer that you can create structure for your day, regardless of what you’ve got going on. And you need to run your life.

Otherwise, it will run you. And this is of course what you do after you’ve allowed yourself some time off and that I talked about earlier in this episode. This is how you manage the day to day. And this also means carving out time in your week to do the deep work.

We always come back to time. I know how hard it is to create time in your week when you have a lot going on. And I’m talking from experience of having a newborn baby and she doesn’t care what schedule or plan I have for things, but I’ve told myself and I’m telling you now that creating structure and making space and time is critical if you want to make progress with your YouTube channel and with your business.

And when you have this precious time that you’ve created it’s important that you be as productive as you can be and work on high leverage activities. This means that you spend time you have on money-making task, on researching your content, developing your content, pitching brand deals, if this is what you want to do, on creating your products and your programs, on running your advertising, on setting it up so that you actually make money, on managing your team to do the work for you, not doing the busy work things that you can outsource for $5 an hour.

This really requires you to get organised and understand what you need to do. And finally start having a system and using software like Trello or Asana, so you can stay focused and stay on track and get things done. So that basically wraps up today’s episode.

And I hope that this really helps you if you’re struggling to find time to do YouTube and focus on business, especially if there are big things out of your control that have happened in your life. And please note that no way here, have I mentioned going into hustle mode, on sleeping less, on grinding until you’re exhausted and you drop, it really is about taking inventory of your life and getting rid of things that you don’t need an outsourcing as much as you can, so you can work on the things that matter that make you money and make you progress.

And I want you to hear, and I want you to know that I really understand what it’s like. I’m in the trenches with you. And I know that if I can dig myself out, and I can find success on YouTube on the platform then you can to.

Whatever you’re going through trust that it will work out for you. Make those steps to make some progress, keep going and you’ve got this. The episode is over, but it doesn’t have to end. Head on over to thrivingcreatormasterclass.com.

The link is also in the show notes. If you’re ready to go from confusion to clarity and to finally ditch that self doubt so you can build the profitable YouTube channel, you know, deep down, you’re always meant to create, then join me inside my signature program, the Thriving Creator Academy, where you get the content, coaching and community you need to successfully implement my proprietary system so you can start reaping rewards of running a thriving YouTube channel.

The thriving creator academy is a coaching program for creators who are ready to transform their creative ideas into thriving YouTube channels. Sign up to the master class now to learn more at thrivingcreatormasterclass.com.