hey guys Greg here as you can see behind
me I'm editing a video and the video is
the video you're going to see but what I
wanted to say was that I wrote out this
huge document like tons and tons of
words in it kind of like I guess a
script kind of because I had a lot of
ideas in my mind and I wanted to share
them with you and I was going to be a
video but then it turned out to be a lot
of words and now it's about mm3 videos
at least and then I have probably
another three or four more in a series
it's just kind of taking you behind the
scenes and telling you about what is
like producing videos on YouTube yeah so
what happened though is that I had a lot
of details I want to make sure I got
them right and then I thought you know
what it's going to take a lot of time to
talk to the camera like this because
when you're editing having to edit with
the face and your expressions and try
and remember things it's a lot
especially when you have like 45 minutes
of content which is what I have so far
for three videos so I thought hmmm it's
going to be easier to record this audio
only first no visuals just audio and
then edit it and then put it out there
and so I did that and the editing was
fine but what happened was that once you
have it and you have the audio then
there's no visuals and that kind of bugs
me so I started putting text on there
and put in images and whatnot so it have
taken probably just about as much time
as I would've if I just would have
recorded myself but anyways it's uh yeah
watch it hey guys
Greg here topic my experience with
YouTube so far I said from the get-go
that this X channel is for lots of
things while I've previously used it to
expand on the content from the life
where I'm from Channel today I'm going
to use it to go inwards and take you
behind the scenes I want to talk about
the why and how it was made as such this
will probably be much more interesting
to those that create or want to create
videos themselves if you're simply
interested in Japan this video may not
be your cup of tea onwards and upwards
one of the most frequent questions I get
asked is what do I do
sometimes I don't really know am i a
communicator educator
investigator business guy video guy
freelancer entrepreneur all of those
things what I do know is that I like
creating things ever since I was a kid I
always wanted to be an inventor I like
to solve problems which means trying to
understand them am ia youtuber a vlogger
which by the way I now know how to say
properly even though I've heard the word
eight hundred times
I always think v-log instead of vlog
it's kind of fine to me because I would
never say be log instead of blog but I
digress
am ia youtuber a vlogger after much
thought I've come to the conclusion that
I am but I didn't start out as one more
than half a decade ago I started
watching videos on YouTube but it was
only to watch a single video at a time
like doing a Google search for how do i
poach an egg however my use of YouTube
evolved and I would look forward to
watching the videos made by my favorite
youtubers instead of watching a single
video about poaching an egg I'd be
watching a whole series of making
scrambled eggs Eggs Benedict over easy
eggs and well you get the point
following a youtuber was like following
a favorite newspaper columnist a voice
you look forward to hearing from on a
weekly basis my favorite youtubers
almost right from the start or a
community channel vlogbrothers and Wong
foo they seemed to be into it for the
sheer joy of creating sharin and
communicating if you don't know any of
them I wouldn't be surprised since there
are so many youtubers out there so let
me introduce you I'll start with
community Channel who is actually
natalie tran if I had to describe her
videos in one sentence I would say they
are mini Seinfeld episodes starring
natalie tran and only natalie tran it's
been inspiring watching her as she's
always done her own thing mostly without
any sponsorship merch or anything else
she's been a youtuber for ten years and
she largely has the same format and
approach it's amazing to see her
consistently do great work for such a
long time then there's the vlogbrothers
when I first saw their videos I thought
they
talked fast really fast and their
constant jump cuts were jarring to my
eyes in all my work as a video producer
I've always avoided the jump cut but
what they were saying was what mattered
and they had lots of thought-provoking
things on their minds they were also
doing a lot of good for the world and
donated significant amounts of money to
charitable causes they've since built up
a mini YouTube empire and are one of the
leading YouTube producers and then
there's Wong foo their video production
and storytelling was what caught my eye
they were making creative shorts and
even when they occasionally had sponsors
the produced videos were done in a way
that some viewers may never have known
in their 10 years on YouTube they've
built a company sold merch made a movie
and are now creating digital shorts for
YouTube read the YouTube subscription
service I think it's quite hard to
survive on YouTube when you're producing
high production value creative shorts
but they were able to not only survive
but actually thrive I must have picked
up that last part from some corporate
motivational speech learn how to go from
surviving to thriving anyways while all
those people are able to make a living
thanks to their work on YouTube it
didn't start out that way for them I
learned early on that YouTube wasn't
about making money so we never treated
it as a place to make a living even the
big vloggers had jobs and only the
biggest can make a living if they
supplemented their income with
additional products whether it be merged
like t-shirts and posters stuff they
made like books and CDs or getting
sponsorship as such when I first started
posting videos to YouTube it was to host
my business videos oh did I forget to
mention I started a video production
business with my brother back in 2001 by
the time YouTube came around in 2006 I'd
been producing videos for a while but
like I was saying I first started using
YouTube as a free way to host my videos
those videos never got many views and
that wasn't the point I only wanted a
free way to distribute my work in 2009 I
decided to have some fun and put out a
series of real-life sketch comedy videos
those got a very modest amount of views
I was happy doing them because the point
was not to get popular but to have a
creative outlet they took a long time to
produce and when I got too busy with my
paid work I stopped making them later on
I started using YouTube to upload
business education videos those did much
better than my previously uploaded
videos budding compares into other
youtubers the number of views were tiny
then in 2012 I took my little brother to
Japan I decided it would be cool to make
a video diary of the jerk been published
19 mini episodes those videos were also
a way for me to practice creating
content quickly could I put my usual
production quality qualms behind me and
just create like all my other videos
they got a few views but to me the
project was successful as it got me
creating more without worrying so much
about production values so before I
started life where I'm from I had posted
about hundred videos to YouTube with
about a quarter of them being vlog style
a quarter of them being promotional and
half of them being business education
some did better than others but my
success was of the type that I'd never
consider making a living by producing
those types of videos for YouTube for me
YouTube was a place where you could get
people's attention and that attention
may lead to some opportunities if your
audience was large enough or engaged
enough in 2013 my family and I moved to
Japan in the decision to move I wasn't
sure how I'd financially survive I would
be leaving behind my video production
business a business that after four
years was at its peak in terms of sales
what wait a minute
didn't you start a video business with
your brother in 2001 that's 12 years
dude yes I did but after a few years of
simultaneously doing the video business
and my university degree
I stopped to finish my university
education then tried working for some
big companies then ran a totally
unrelated ecommerce meal delivery
business after those detours I went back
into video production in 2009 so when I
left for Japan in 2013 I had been
running my latest video production
business for about 4 years and I was
starting to do relatively well and I
left it all to go to Japan and it was
in case you're not in the know my wife
was born and raised in Japan so allowing
the kids to experience their Japanese
heritage was always something we wanted
to do in the months surrounding the move
I was fortunate enough to secure
contracts creating business educational
content for companies in the US and
Canada which meant I could still make a
living in Japan without actually working
for companies in Japan but there were
only contracts not full-time positions
on the move to Japan I brought my pro
video gear with me as I didn't know if
I'd have to look for video work in order
to make ends meet it turned out that my
online educational work did well enough
that I was initially able to make enough
of a living so for the first year I
hardly touched my camera after that year
I sold off the vast majority of my gear
since for the most part the longer you
have video gear sitting the more it
depreciates after selling in my progear
I opted to get a small point-and-shoot
camera that could fit in the pocket of
my pants and I could use on the go it
was about as far away from my pro video
gear as could be but while I drastically
downgraded the quality of my gear I
upgraded its mobility after about a year
and a half into my move to Japan I had
the urge to try something on YouTube I
wanted to make creative videos again but
what to make the videos about since I
first went to Japan in 2000 I had always
wanted to make videos about it as the
everyday was so different from my
experiences in Canada but then again as
much as it's different it's also very
much the same as Canada and Japan or
both first world countries that lean
more on the socialist and polite side of
the spectrum what had initially
discouraged me from making videos about
Japan was that I hadn't seen content out
there that inspired me this was right
back when YouTube was starting out in
2006 though and the term Jai vlogger
probably didn't even exist but now it
was 2014 and there were people making
quality content about Japan were they
making a living at it I kind of doubted
it but they seemed to really enjoy what
they were doing what really inspired me
was seeing content from the likes of
Rachel and Jun and Michaela
they presented topics in a way that
seemed balanced and nuanced while still
making the videos interesting I found
myself watching a whole bunch of their
videos learning a lot about Japan
however I decided not to make videos
about Japan from the adult perspective
there is so many out there doing it and
many successfully I thought that even if
I produce quality content the market for
attention was already saturated so then
what would I make videos about I noticed
that there weren't many kids videos on
YouTube that explained everyday life in
Japan or everyday life in other
countries so that got me thinking I love
filming my kids and my kids love
watching YouTube was I able to make
something that could both educate and
entertain kids perhaps I could make
edutainment videos like crash course by
the green brothers are the kids react
series by the fine brothers although now
the reputation in quite what it used to
be I thought just having a kid's
perspective of Japan wasn't unique
enough so I wanted to expand that to
what life is like for kids from
different countries around the world in
fact the channel was supposed to start
off with one of my good friends and his
kids from Vancouver providing the
Canadian perspective while my kids
provided the Japanese perspective if we
found enough of an audience we'd then
start to feature kids from different
countries around the world before I
started the channel though I had another
problem to figure out which was how do I
quickly produce videos all my
professional video life my goal was to
always make videos with better shots
better audio and better editing which
takes time to start a channel on YouTube
I felt I had to do the opposite why I
was used to spending 40 or 80 hours
producing videos that were only a few
minutes long but if I wanted to
regularly upload videos I couldn't
afford to spend that amount of time
producing videos while still working
full-time hours doing paid work if I
could learn to spend only 10 to 20 hours
on a video I could produce four times
the amount of videos in the same amount
of time it would normally take me to
make one the quality would only be
perhaps 70 or 80 percent of what I was
used to but producing more content would
give me the chance to explore more ideas
it also
me less worried about failing because I
hadn't spent so much time working on it
another thing about spending less time
producing a video is that sometimes the
more you polish a video the more doesn't
feel authentic this isn't always true
but when I try to make a video to
perfect
I felt it started to lose the something
that would allow people to connect to it
basically over time I learned that
content Trump's production and if you
don't know what I mean is that people
would rather watch something are more
likely someone that is interesting then
watch something that is boring but has
amazing production values all things
being the same yeah better production
values will help but on YouTube you
usually can't expect great production
values to get you an audience this was
and still is a big change in the way
I've produced videos before I launched
the life where I'm from Channel I needed
to prove to myself that I can
consistently make videos that were not
only interesting but that I can make it
in both my kids and my own free time so
I started producing videos but didn't
upload them to YouTube after making a
few videos I figured out we could do it
but unfortunately my buddy in Canada who
was supposed to do the same thing
couldn't quite match my pace so I
launched the channel after sitting on
perhaps five or six videos hoping that
he would be able to join up with that
Canadian perspective sometime later now
were 30 odd videos in and it's really a
channel about what life is like for my
kids in Japan and kind of a funny thing
even though it's made for kids I'm sure
the majority of viewers are teenagers
and adults anyways
I would still love it if my friend from
Vancouver did join in with that Canadian
perspective and I'm still trying to find
a good way to incorporate what a kid's
life is like in other countries around
the world ok I think I'll stop the video
here I'll be making some more videos
continuing the story though I tried to
be brief but detailed at the same time I
hope I kind of did that other questions
you'd like me to address in future
videos in the next one I'll talk about
what it was like to go viral as always
thanks for watching and I'll catch you
on the flipside