I challenged myself to make and publish 100 videos on YouTube in less than 90 days.
Yes, it was an aggressive goal, inspired by the YouTube Mastery course with George Kao, and such a challenge is just my style. I know from experience that getting into action teaches me more than any course ever could, and it’s also hella fun.
Within the first few weeks, I experienced an explosion of creativity that showed me how to become a content-creating machine without pressure. But that was just the beginning of my learning journey.
Of course, I learned many things about how YouTube works and began the learning curve involved in titles, thumbnail images and video editing, but I won’t focus on those things here because frankly, you can learn about those things for free from a smart Google search from people with much more experience.
Instead, I’ll focus on what looks different to me now than when I began, and where I’m headed next in my YouTube creation journey.
The Results
Here are the tangible results of my 100 YouTube Videos Challenge.
I created 100 new videos that didn’t exist! This brings the total videos on my channel to 309.
I gained 62 new subscribers.
A few of my videos got featured by YouTube, and one got over 1,500 views.
My views increased by 558% (in a period over period comparison) and people engaged and commented on many of my videos.
These metrics really don’t communicate the value of my learning journey, and I’m not terribly impressed with them, but they do represent progress worth celebrating.
Lessons From YouTube Video Creation
#1 – You can always create.
Now, I knew this before, but making videos daily took this even deeper.
My intellect might insist that I need to have a clear message, a list of topics and a clear target audience in order to create that many videos, but it’s simply not true.
All I need is me and my phone.
I don’t need to feel inspired or confident. I don’t need to be “ready.”
I just need to do it, and when I do, creation and inspiration meets me there. Many times over these weeks of regular creation I truly didn’t feel like making a video, but I did it anyway. It was always possible.
My videos weren’t always pretty (just check out my frizzy hair!) or “good” according to my standards, but there was something alive in each one. I think you get a sense of me and what I’m about.
#2 – Your message comes through as you share it, and it gets stronger and clearer over time.
I didn’t create a list of topics or prompts to create from. I didn’t imagine my “customer avatar” as I made each video.
I simply showed up as myself talking about what was present and relevant to me and the community of people around me. Some of these videos were inspired by real questions, while in others I was purely sharing a personal experience.
Because I was creating two programs (CREATE and SHARE) during my challenge, many of my videos express these themes.
I also had some huge personal breakthroughs around fear, which I ended up sharing in my videos. It wasn’t preplanned and these videos got some of the most engagement.
I got a feel for my message and how I want to show up with YouTube, just by doing it.
#3 – What you focus on determines your results.
This is obvious, but worth repeating.
I set some pretty ambitious goals at the start. I thought it would be fun to have 1,000 subscribers and have each of my videos get 100 views.
When one of my challenge-mates had a video that went viral with over 2,500 views. I started to beat myself up for not getting the same results.
Then I asked myself what I’d been focusing on. My attention was on creating content and discovering my message, creating 100 videos in a short period of time without thinking or planning.
I didn’t focus at all on growing my subscribers or views, so I didn’t get results in that direction. Instead, I learned so much about what I’m inspired to create and the message coming through me!
The intention you choose for your actions will influence the results you get. My next YouTube actions will include a focus on growing my audience, and most certainly this will mean being more intentional about my content and it will yield different results.
#4 – You won’t know if a platform is really right for you until you try it.
I wasn’t sure if YouTube was a platform for me. I quit using social media for my business almost four years ago, and wasn’t sure if YouTube belonged in my marketing mix.
So I decided to do this experiment.
Turns out, I really like making videos! Videos don’t tend to suck me into rabbit holes the same way Facebook or Instagram might do. I also really like the Partnership program and the possibility of earning from the creation of my videos.
But I never would have discovered these things if I hadn’t given YouTube a try. No amount of research can give you a true experience of a platform. You need to get your hands dirty.
#5 -The more you know, the more you discover what you don’t know.
My YouTube Challenge was blessedly simple: create 100 videos in 90 days.
This made my challenge easy to complete. I didn’t worry about titles, thumbnail images or algorithms.
Of course, I continued learning more about YouTube during my challenge and started experimenting with thumbnails and such towards the end. The more I learned, the more I saw I had yet to learn.
I learned about the importance of having a clear intention for my YouTube channel, knowing who I’m creating for, and doing research to discover the topics and content most likely to reach my audience.
I’m really just at the beginning of my YouTube journey with a long way to go for “real” results.
# 6 – Ditch perfection: make it easy and fun to take action and get results.
It’s really easy to get stuck in the trap of perfectionism and inaction.
So take the pressure off from the start by setting the bar LOW. Really low. (You can do that, you know.)
Since my goal was 1-2 videos per day, I couldn’t afford to be a perfectionist. You’ll see videos with no makeup, bad lighting and crappy endings.
The camera on my old Pixel Pro phone was amazing! I’d whip it out and take a video anywhere. My new Samsung phone camera doesn’t hold a candle to it, and it really inhibits my spontaneous video filming.
Whether it’s using equipment you love, making a video on zoom or recording coversations of you with another person, let it be easy to do. The more videos you make, the more you learn. The more you learn, the more actions you take.
The longer you stay in the game, the better your results. Make it a long-term game by taking many imperfect actions, and you will progress.
What’s Next?
I’m going deep into the purpose of my YouTube channel. Frankly, creating videos just to make money is boring.
But what if I could create a channel to inspire and support changemakers in making a positive difference in the world?
What if my humble corner of YouTube could become a resource for people who want to make a positive difference and connect with other people and projects doing the same?
Now that would be worth investing the time and energy in.
Wanna join in the fun?
Follow my YouTube evolution here by subscribing to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/@StephBenedetto
If you have questions or topics you’d love for me to make a video about, please comment on this article or under the video of your choice. You are my favorite inspiration!
Yours in love and play,
Steph
