What's Stopping You From Starting Your Youtube Channel

Youtube has been a huge blessing for me. I never thought of myself as a Youtuber or really had any interest in it until on a whim I decided to try it out.

Like many people my Youtubing career was an evolution. First making totally random videos about nothing in particular. Then being too shy to go on camera, and finally realizing that Youtube is all about connecting with people and people can't connect with a blank screen.

If I had to nail down the reasons many people don't get started on Youtube even though they are considering it, as well as the reasons that kept me from doing it, I think that may help some more people get started.

Even though I've steered this direction kind of about Youtube, I think Steemit and really any platform has many of the same issues in terms of you're putting yourself out there.

So here's what I think are the top reasons stopping people from starting their own channel, or just putting themselves out there period, and how you can kind of get over this.

1. I'll Feel Like A Fraud

When you first decide to start a channel you sort of feel like a fraud. You're not a Youtuber, you have no past experience as one, and you're kind of unsure of yourself and what you're doing. Think to things you currently do or are good at, or your job, and think about how you felt when you first started. When we start doing something new we are all frauds. It's through practice and repetition that we truly become good at something or experts. Just to give you an analogy. When a new prison guard walks the yard for the first time or when a police officer pulls someone over for the first time, or when a teacher enters the class room for the first time. They don't know what the hell they are doing, they aren't sure of themselves but they put on the best show they can and after the first time it gets easier, and after the next time times even easier, and at some point you just are what you're doing.

2. What If People Make Fun Of Me Or Troll Me?

To me once you really think about it this should be one of the easiest things to get over. I'm sure we've all seen some cringe worthy Youtube or Facebook videos and we sure don't want to be that person, just watching it makes us cringe. Those are typically pretty extreme examples though. If you're doing something your passionate about or enjoy or truly believe in there's really nothing to be embaressed about. The other thing to keep in mind is most people probably don't care about you nearly as much as you think. Even if you look stupid in a video chances are nobody will even care. Now at some point you probably will have someone make a troll comment and say you have a big nose or your stupid or you don't know what your talking about, it probably will happen at some point but who cares. Ask any Youtuber, any Entrepreneur, anyone doing anything positive with their life and they will tell you that they have mad respect for anyone who has the bulls to put themself out there or take action on anything. Anyone who is doing anything worthwhile with their life doesn't have the time to hate on strangers on the internet, nor would they.

3. What If Someone I Know Sees Me?

This is one that I actually still struggle with. For me it's incredibly fucking awkward when someone I know watches one of my videos. I don't want to say that I'm fake when I make my videos because I am totally being myself, but there's definately a different side to me that comes out when I make a video. In real life I'm pretty quiet and introverted and I try to bring out a little bit of a different side to myself when making a video, so it's kind of strange when someone in real life who knows you one way watches your videos. The best analogy I can give you is if you ever feel awkward hanging around two different groups of people like maybe childhood friends vs college friends or co-workers and personal friends, if you ever are around two different groups of people you maybe naturally act slightly different around and find yourself not sure how to act, that's the best explaination I can give you.

4. I'm Not Prepared

I'm a big fan of taking action and I also encourage others to take action. Being an Entrepreneur I despise business plans. A business plan is essentially a way of putting off actually getting started. People sit down writing dozens and even hundreds of pages planning for every possible scenario under the sun, 99.9% of which will never happen, thus meaning they wasted their time planning for them. In terms of business I'm a huge fan of the $100 Startup, the idea being a business plan need not be more than a couple bullet points on a piece of paper and you should get started immediately. You'll get much further starting and learning as you go than you will sitting around trying to learn from books or theory. I think the same is Youtube, the best way you'll learn how to get comfortable in front of the camera is getting in front of the camera. The best way you'll learn video editing is to start doing it, and the best way to find your niche or topic to make videos about is just to start making videos and see where it takes you.

Wrapping Up

I'd love to hear from you guys. Have any of you thought about or wanted to start a Youtube channel in the past but didn't follow through? What was it that stopped you? Was it any of these reasons listed above or something entirely different?