I uploaded a couple videos in January that (to my great amazement) went low-key viral. Together they got ~470,000 views on a YouTube channel with no prior subscribers or views*.
There are funny details about that experience I should share some time (would make a great TED talk), but details aside, the experience reminded me of a few things.
I like making things.
I like sharing things.
I should be doing those things regularly for my own enjoyment.
I do make and share with some regularity, but it's almost always tied to work. It's stuff I'm getting paid to make. And that's great, whether it's a video or a podcast or whatever. But if I'm going to grow creatively, I need to make things for my own enjoyment. I need to make things the way I want to make them, because I want to make them. And I need to stop getting hung up on things being "ideal" or "perfect".
This is a video I made in March with my nephew Jacob. We went to Topaz Mountain in Utah. It was a really fun day. I filmed and edited this just as you see here, but never uploaded because I wanted to film an ending... that I never got around to filming. Again, getting hung up on things being ideal or perfect. I get SO hung up on that... and it never helps, not once, ever.
This video isn't really even finished, but I'm uploading it anyway. It doesn't have intro and outro graphics. It runs way too long. It *definitely* won't go viral. But I had fun making it, and I'm going to try to make more, just for myself, because I like to.
I used my iPhone, Snap Specs V2, and my Rylo 360 camera. They did a great job, and I should use the easy cameras more often, because I get too in my head with more complicated gear, and it just throws sand in the gears of production.
I think good things happen when you follow your own creative impulses. I'm going to try to do that more often.
*A little window into those videos and the unexpected sequence of events.