Why I Don't Do YouTube Full-Time

hey everyone it's Richard you're watching the plane Bagel a bit of a different video today I had a gap in my scheduling and I'm just getting over a cold uh so I figured i' i' fill the space with a bit of an easier kind of one-off type video If there's no interest in it no worries we'll see you in two weeks time uh but I want to touch on a topic that often comes up around the channel and that was sort of recently relevant uh because in June I went to my first event as a YouTuber I've gone to a lot of uh fin events and conferences uh for my day job but this was kind of the first thing I've ever gone to because I have the YouTube plain bagel Channel it might sound shocking given the size of the channel but I just admittedly haven't made much of an effort to uh get out of the house and there's not a whole lot of stuff nearby in Canada but recently I was invited to a social event hosted by Blossom which is a investing social media app uh in Toronto and there were going to be a bunch of Canadian Finance creators as well as uh some us creators attending uh so I decided to make the trip down and go to my first event as an ambassador of the channel and it was a really fun event I got to speak to a bunch of other creators in the space uh meet some viewers in person and I didn't get any uh nice photos but I'll I'll throw up whatever I have and while I was there I spoke to Adrian from Canadian in a t-shirt who runs a solid Canadian focused personal finance channel here on YouTube and also a really nice guy in person and he asked me why I still have a full-time job and I gave him an answer but I figured I would make a video out of it because it's something that does often come up given the uh size of the channel so thanks Adrien for the easy video topic now for those unfamiliar in addition to YouTube I actually work full-time as a registered portfolio manager in Ontario uh for a local Ottawa money manager uh where I do both portfolio management and investment research and for the past seven years while working at this company I've been sustaining the YouTube channel on basically lunch breaks lunch breaks some late evenings when I need to and uh the occasional weekend and because of how much the channel is growing I'm at a point where if I wanted to I could do this full-time it's it's a really privileged position to be in and I could even maybe make more money than I currently do if I were to say pump out more videos or just go full Finance personality MK this for everything it's worth and uh sell an ebook or something but there are a few reasons why I haven't yet done so and outside of just generally sharing the information I'd be genuinely interested in people's opinion on this uh because I have my own perception of things and these points but I'd be curious especially if you were a longtime viewer or someone who watches a lot of other Finance content what your thoughts on these points are so today we're going to go over the four top reasons Richard still has a boss now the first point here is going to sound really cheesy I acknowledge that uh but I actually like my day job I am a big Finance nerd the reason I started doing the channel in part was because I wanted to do more and speak more about Finance beyond what I was already doing in a full-time Finance job so I have a job that lets me work in an area that I'm passionate about I do both company research on the analysis side as well as client facing portfolio management I know a lot of people don't look at the finance industry fondly uh but I get a lot of fulfillment out of helping people with their finances and sitting down and sorting things out and I would hope that the channel does help with that to an extent especially given the the broad reach but there's something more tangible about uh working with someone individually and it's not really something I I'd want to do outside of the professional capacity uh for reasons I've kind of touched on before and I recognize that I have a really unique opportunity with YouTube uh but I also have a pretty rare type of job in the finance space uh not only is it again a sort of hybrid position where I get to do research in addition to working with clients uh but the employer has been incredibly respectful and helpful with the channel very supportive good work life balance I also uh have the opportunity to even do YouTube alongside this one of the reasons we don't have a lot of professionals on YouTube posting videos is that a lot of companies just won't let their employees do so because of the liability risk of of kind of having this side operation so given all that I'm not really Keen to give uh that up so easily so that's the first point is I like my day job and I have a pretty rare type of job in the space uh the second point is that I don't know that I want to post any more content than I already do I don't know if i' would want this to be my main job it's hard to say without uh trying it and knowing what the experience is like but posting one video every two weeks really feels like about as much as I I care to make and really the only reason I've been able to do YouTube In addition to a full-time job is because I've always kind of weirdly treated it as a hobby I've always really enjoyed doing video editing um and in University I had a teaching role uh which showed me that I really enjoyed doing that kind of stuff so I really enjoyed making content for YouTube yes I spend a lot of my free time uh making videos uh but I enjoy the process so it doesn't feel like work if I were to do it full-time however I think it would be a lot more draining I don't know if I have it in me to be a full-time Creator even in the space of Finance now am I open to doing more YouTube stuff and events of course would I box Patrick Bole at the next Creator Clash absolutely but Creator burnout is real and I know this is finance we're not making the most artsy Productions out here but I'm very fortunate where if I don't have the energy to make a video or discuss a given topic I don't have to and I have a really good balance with my full-time job uh where I have the energy to make these videos videos on the side and then way touches on the third point which is that because I don't have to rely on YouTube income I'm allowed to focus a lot more on the areas that I want to focus on out of interest rather than needing to make sure that I'm always making money with YouTube because YouTube AdSense is incredibly volatile some months you make more than you ever expected and you're on top of the world other months the amount begins to dwindle and you wonder if you made a mistake and if this is the end of everything you've ever built on the platform uh so needless to say it it jumps around a and it's nice that when that happens I don't have to stress really um you know obviously I want to see the channel do well and I like money but I'm able to set very clear boundaries around what I want to do and what I don't want to do uh because I don't have to worry about my monthly expenses not being covered if the channel doesn't do well and to be clear this isn't to suggest that you can't be a full-time Creator and find a good balance with these things and likewise to suggest that I'm not motivated by money I still do sponsorships on the channel but it's really nice not feeling a need to play the algorithm or uh take on a shady agreement or sponsorship or just sell stuff that I don't care to sell and as sort of subo to that I don't know how long the YouTube Finance gravy train is going to keep running I join the space at a near Flawless point in time not by any active choice of my own uh but just because a few years after I started posting videos uh we had Bitcoin come into prominence and other cryptocurrencies uh nfts the pandemic the lockdowns and The Surge of interest and content on retail investing GameStop in the mem stock rally and all these events brought a lot of interest that didn't exist before into the niche of finance and investing and I don't know if the space is always going to keep growing if in a few years from now it's going to be bigger or smaller from where it is today so kind of on a risk standpoint it's nice again having a a solid kind of career given the uncertainty about where Finance YouTube goes from here finally the last Point as to why I have a full-time job in addition to uh doing YouTube is that I genuinely think it helps the channel I've been working in finance for nearly a decade I went to school for it um I did my CFA and cfp designations I'm still learning something new every day in my job I get to work with people who have been in the industry for decades themselves uh who in most cases are more experienced and better educated than myself I also have access to tools and resources that I might not otherwise be able to access and I get to spend a lot of my workday researching topics that uh can later translate into helping the channel either directly or indirectly uh whether it just be improving my understanding of financial Concepts and economic Concepts as a whole uh or it something that actually translates into a later script for a video or a point to talk about uh such as with for example Silicon Valley Bank uh when that institution collapsed I had to look into it for work because it mattered to what we were doing and it later translated into a video so I know the term Synergy gets overused in business but there's a pretty good one between what I do for my day job and what I do for YouTube because they're the same topic I do Finance for my day job and then as an extension of that I post videos on Finance on YouTube so in a way my job does help with content generation and I would hope uh helps with the quality of content given that I can bounce ideas off of co-workers and if I've done a deep dive into a topic for work it gives me that better understanding for making a video and just overall like I said it's it's a lot of synergies so those are the four reasons why I currently do both that's not to say that will always be the case uh my priorities might change in the future they changed quite a bit when I had my two boys and you know there might be a point where I don't have the energy to do both and I focus on one versus the other but over time I have been able to manage the two in part because outside of getting more efficient with my channel I have really cut back a lot of the work I put into editing videos you might know that I used to animate a lot in my videos and that was before I had kids and before I I had a a PM rooll at my company uh but you might notice my editing style is is very uh refined these days very basic uh which saves me a lot of time in putting these videos together and gives me more time to focus on what I think matters which is the information but with all that being said I still have a drive to grow the channel and and try different things to bring new projects to the Forefront to box Patrick Bo and just try new projects and and things with the channel and over time it's always just been a getting more efficient with making these videos and the next big thing is going to be probably hiring an editor uh since I do most of my videos by myself I know you guys love my editing style and and the flare I bring uh but it's it's about focusing on on what I can add the most value with so despite everything I've said and and despite the intent to continue working a full-time job uh this is not to say that I'm done with YouTube or uh content with just riding the wave as it is I'm incredibly fortunate to have this type of following and my goal is to continue to um innovate whatever that means for YouTube uh to try new things and uh bring more hopefully informative content to the Forefront anyway that's a video and as mentioned at the beginning I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of it especially if you are a long-term viewer who has has maybe seen the change of content over time uh what your views are on it maybe you're of the mindset that you miss the crappy Little Richard animations or you like the planer style whatever it be uh would really be interested to hear in your feedback and given the nature of the topic I do want to take the opportunity to say thanks for watching and for supporting the channel and I hope this doesn't give the impression that I take this for granted uh because I don't this has been an incredible experience to be able to have any sort of following online let alone the size we've had for the channel so thank you uh for sticking around if if you've been with the channel for a while and for even just joining me today so we'll leave the video there like I mentioned let me know your thoughts we'll see you in the next one

Channel: The Plain Bagel

Views: 125,581

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Id: dKpD-qAKnVU

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2024