The Outcome Isn’t Up to You
As we near the end of the first quarter I’m reflecting on what I set out to do this year and noticed I’m behind. Despite the recent success and growth I have a nagging idea in the back of my mind.
Online success is typically equated with increasing views, likes, and follows which determine the health and size of your channel and video performance.
The problem is those measures don’t tell you what to do or change, just that a video was “good".
But how do we know what parts were good?
In the second half of 2023 I created two of my best performing videos. After they took off I spent hours re-watching those videos as well as my under-performing videos in an attempt to pin down what made those two videos good and here’s what I found.
Fix One Thing
Every single video has flaws. The important thing is to recognize one flaw in your control that you can fix in your next video.
For example, I used to have pretty bad sound quality in my videos and I knew it, but in my first few videos I accepted it knowing that I was experimenting and wasn’t ready to sink money into making it better. I had dipped a toe into the microphone rabbit hole and backed out knowing that was a flaw I’d solve some other day and would instead get better at improving my shot quality.
I spent my energy learning about framing, adding angles, exploring creative places to put my camera for different perspectives.
Once the visuals improved I moved on to audio, and then the next thing and then the next. To this day I am still picking one thing each video to improve, whether that’s in the editing software or physically how I capture the shots.
So go back and watch your last handful of videos and find that thing that you keep doing that bugs you and fix it in the next.
Focus on What Matters
One of my biggest problems early on was thinking I had to show everything. I go back to my display cabinet video and I cringe because it’s so long and slow, meticulously showing each step along the way.
The problem is you did the thing you are showing. You know everything and feel showing it is important, but in reality the audience is smart. They will connect the dots, knowing you made 16 total cuts even though you only showed one.
I didn’t recognize that until I forgot the details of the project and returned to an old video to realize how slow it is.
Which is my second point. Narrow your focus.
Include only the parts relevant to the story. Whether you’re building furniture or baking a cake, drop the mundane and include the unique parts. In the case of the dining table project I did exactly this. I skipped the sanding, the extra epoxy pouring, all the hole filling, pretty much the entire finishing because it’s all been seen before. But I made sure to keep the leg design in, the inlaid base, the customization that made the project special. That’s the stuff that grabs the attention so highlight it.
Tell a Story
Okay, I learned this not by watching my videos, but by comparing mine to videos I enjoy. Honestly, it goes beyond YouTube into movies, TV, and even books.
Sometimes a video grabs you. For whatever reason you can’t peel yourself away from it. There’s something in there that compels you to want to know more and you don’t want to get distracted for fear of missing something.
To pinpoint how a video does this give it a second watch and look for the signs. Is the creator leaving breadcrumbs for you, hinting at what’s to come and dangling that carrot a few inches in front of you so you have to watch to find out the solution to their problem? Or are they crafting a story of redemption where the character has to learn and grow to overcome the obstacle in their way?
There are many different ways writers create a reason to keep your attention, but the best way I have found is to create a story.
Every video is an opportunity to do three things. To share a build, to talk about an idea, and to show a transformation, and it’s that last one that is the ticket to success.
Going into my dining table video I had an idea to do the first two things. It was also my first video I scripted making it easier to organize myself, to keep it concise, and to tell the story I wanted which was the table build and this idea that every project starts with an idea and ends in a transformation.
But I didn’t realize there was a third element, and it took the next four videos to learn what that element was.
Me.
I was the character who took on the challenge of overcoming an obstacle, that massive slab of wood, and causing the transformation to take place.
I took this realization and applied it to the entry table video, but took it a step further and made the story about my personal journey. And now I’m writing all my scripts to add in this third element, a story that centers around the main character evoking emotion and bringing people along with me rather than simply presenting a build.
Those are my three lessons I’ve learned over the past year and a half making videos. And to sum it all up, all you can do is your best. Create the best video you can today and push yourself to improve the next one.
Remember, the outcome isn’t up to you, so ignore it, It doesn’t matter.
What matters is the improvement. You should look back and see it, one step at a time. Eventually others will see it too and they’ll appreciate where you are and you get to appreciate from where you have come.