How I Got Started on YouTube & Blogging
I wanted to share how I got started with YouTube and which later expanded to blogging. Maybe you have been thinking about starting your own channel for some time now or a blog and just keep putting it off. I hope this encourages you to go ahead and start right away and do not put it off any longer.
My story (click here About Me Story):
One day I remember laying in my bed and I stumbled across channels that displayed their home life and decor. I was in absolute in love and fascinated because I loved anything that related to the home.
After watching for months, maybe a few years. I decided one day after finishing Jesiah’s baby nursery. To film the decor of his nursery. I will never forget that video. I was out of breath because I was like 37 weeks pregnant. And our A.C. upstairs went out and it was really hot!
On top of that, I did not know what to do or say during the filming of his room tour.
But I did it! Got through it! And uploaded it!
I can not remember if I uploaded straight from my phone. At the time I had a SAMSUNG Galaxy cell phone to only film with. I did very little editing because I did not know how to. Everyone has to start somewhere. So do not let the editing process get in your way. Just do it!
I was not consistent at first because it was not a priority for me because everything was so new. It was not the first thing that I thought about.
With that being said, I did not think about recording Jesiah’s baby shower or the DIYs that I created. I could have even given tips on how to save on having a baby shower on a budget. All of these things I think of now, as a seasoned YouTuber but I had to learn and start somewhere.
As I recall just on a whim, I got up and started recording all of the DIY decorations and ideas that I did for his baby shower after the fact. That video was my second one and got quite a number of views. This video also got my very first comment. It was not directed to me but another creator that I spoke about in the video. That was okay! I was just excited to get my first comment.
Decorating for the holidays was something that I enjoyed to do since I was a little girl. Except when I was little I took pictures from the classroom activities that we made or colored and placed them all throughout the house. I knew as early as the 2nd grade that I was going to decorate my (our) family’s home with seasonal and holiday decor.
This is exactly what I do now! And I really love it!
I was decorating for my family anyway and decided to share with others. My family was all too familiar with the decorations in our home and they are males so it was not a big deal for them. LOL! That was okay!
For a long time, I created these large meals for the holidays. Placing a hot meal on the table for my boys was a priority for me. Honestly, for a really long time, that was all that I (we) could do for them on a regular. We could not take them to the movies or bowling once a month. But I knew I could give them a really good meal that they will remember.
After a while, I noticed they would gobble down there food, really fast. And sitting down around the table together was over within a couple of minutes when it took me hours to prepare.
My very next video was my Thanksgiving Tablescape in 2014.
I was apart of the Facebook group called: A Bowl Full Of Lemons – Home Organization group. Everyone in the group would post things that were not necessarily about organization. So I thought it was okay to post about my holiday tablescapes. I posted before in the group what I have organized in our home and it was so much fun to share.
With the Thanksgiving tablescape, I got tons of positive feedback from everyone in the Bowl Full Of Lemons group. So I posted again at Christmas time and everyone enjoyed it as well.
That is when I decided to start decorating the table, celebrating their birthday’s with a little more with decorations to make it a little more memorable. I also thought they would linger around the table just a little more. It totally worked!
Now back to the Facebook Group. When the New Year came around it became this big thing about people sharing things in the group that were not organization related. I was a little disappointed because that was a little outlet for me.
Nevertheless, it became a huge blessing!
This is when I started to take YouTube a little more seriously.
Because I started recording my tablescapes and uploading them to YouTube. My first Thanksgiving and Christmas Tablescape was all shopped from the Dollar Tree simply because that is where I started all of our celebrations before I even had a channel. I did not have a lot of entertainment pieces, so I knew Dollar Tree would be my best option because it was affordable and they had plenty of options.
And that is when it all started. I just continued to upload a project that I have worked on in our home. If it was a party or a celebration I recorded it as well.
Blogging
Meanwhile, I had a blog that I wrote a post on every blue moon. It was a hobby blog at first just to journal about my day. Although the goal was to place that same content from my YouTube channel over on my blog as well.
Let just say that was a lot of work! And it took a lot of preplanning to have them both come out at the same time, which never happened. And post after post got further behind.
Blogging was something that I always wanted to do. My Mother also suggested it many, many times that I should take courses on blogging. I did take a few but I was still confused. Most of that confusion came from my stubbornness of not wanting to switch platforms, from Weebly to WordPress.
Weebly was easy and what I was use to using. Changing was the last thing on my mind. So I did nothing with the blog.
Nevertheless, I knew that I did not always want to create videos. Creating videos takes lots of work and time. I wasn’t the one to get on camera quite often, I never started my channel to do so. I just wanted to share things that I enjoyed making and creating. After a while, I knew I had more to share with the world. More than what I shared on my channel,
I had tons of ideas and writing was enjoyable for me, the majority of the time. LOL!
Stumbling Across
One day I was watching His and Her Money on YouTube and they had an interview with Rosemarie Groner, The Busy Budgeter. She talked about her story with blogging and how it changed her life. She mentioned the Elite Blog Academy (A.K.A. EBA) was the course that she had taken created by Ruth Soukup.
Ruth’s name seemed so familiar to me…and then I heard them mentioned her blog, Living Well Spending Less. I was a subscriber to her email for years and have been to her blog several times.
Ok back to EBA. After their video, I was so inspired and I wanted to hear more. I did a search and found a few more videos to watch. One EBA website there were many success videos to watch and I literally binged watch all of those videos.
Knowing that if they did it, then I could too. I just had to put in the hard work.
They explained how in Ruth’s course she lays a foundation of the next steps to do when creating a blog. I thought okay I can do this!
The question was next, how much was the course. Well, let me say this. It is pricey but it is well worth the investment. I needed to invest in myself in order to learn the process. In order to get where I wanted to be. The course was about $800 and boy it was a hard pill to swallow to see that money deducted from the bank account. But looking back, am so grateful for even having the money at the time to invest in myself.
Once you purchase your course you have lifetime access to it and its updated materials. Which I am excited to see what updates were made since last year.
Going through the course work I feel more confident in what I am doing. I can instantly tell if someone went through EBA or still trying to figure it out by looking at there blog. Ruth’s course lays a foundation like no other, setting you up for success in the end.
My Why
I started my YouTube channel simply as a hobby. That is all well and good! Although after a while you realize that you are putting some much time, energy and work into your channel and/or blog. You think to yourself…I could have spent this time with my children, spouse, working on a project, a hobby, full or part-time job.
Until one day, I stumbled across a video or blog post that told me that I could actually make money from this. Say, what!?! I worked for 1 year and a half before I even was able to make money off of my YouTube channel. Simply wanted to share my passion, my hobby and have a creative outlet. Contributing to the household by having just enough money to purchase groceries for the family was a goal for myself at the time.
I did that and some consistently for a couple of years now.
I knew I had to leave my fulltime Bus Driver position soon because it was best for my family. My husband was going from working a shift where we could juggle our youngest son. But it was also so I could be home to make sure the boys had a way home from there sports and activities.
I wanted to be there when they got home from school. It was important that they were and felt safe. Of course, the boys may get in trouble from time to time, but I wanted to make sure that they stayed out of trouble.
All of this became my Why!
As a SAHM majority of our marriage and their childhood, I needed something for myself. I needed something that expressed my creativity, gave me an outlet, defined who I was as a woman, wife, and Mom. A way that I would not get lost in the day to day life of a Mom, losing my identity as a wife and making a monetary contribution to the household. My grandmothers would say it nothing like your very own money. They were so right!
Something that I could be proud of. Raising and going through the sacrifices for my children is and something that I would never take back. And the fact that I can make money and have the potential to make money while making sure their needs are taking care of is certainly My Why.
Do not put it off another day! Hit record or Begin writing!
There Is Always Hope to begin, forget the self-doubt. You can do this!