January 2019: we survived the holidays, I was about to get the keys to a new house with a 20-year mortgage, and I tried to set goals on a platform that's almost impossible to predict.
Nothing went as expected in 2018
I'd just got back from work, tired, but I couldn't wait to start vlogging again because I'd really missed it. Excuse the mess in the background: we were about to move. Was I expecting everything that happened in 2018? Clearly not. I wasn't expecting 3,000 subscribers or 100K views. I wasn't even expecting to get so involved, or that YouTube would become a need for me.
Goals for 2019
YouTube is a crazy, constantly moving platform. A video could go viral and bring 100,000 subscribers in 48 hours. I really doubted that would happen, but it shows how hard predictions are. Still, my growth goals were 10,000 subscribers (I can't even picture 10,000 people in one place) and 100 videos in total by the end of 2019.
I'm very hard on myself. Nothing I made the year before fully satisfied me. I think every creator feels that, because you always see room for improvement. But that's not how YouTube works. So my motto became "done is better than perfect". I wasn't looking my best that day (beard and hair both needed attention), but I got something done. That routine of finishing things helps in regular life too. I wanted to post more, and with better quality.
The new house and a smaller community
I was honestly terrified of 2019. The following week I'd get the keys to our new house, with a 20-year mortgage and a full refurbishment ahead: furniture, two bathrooms to redo, and new wooden floors, which I was really excited about. I wanted to make videos about it and show you a side of my life that hadn't come out much in 2018.
Last but not least, I wanted to build a community inside the community, a niche inside the niche. Out of 3,000 subscribers, not everyone comments, but many of you watch. I wanted to connect with the people who share my passions: photography, gear, a crazy lifestyle, twins. And I wanted to collaborate more and create entertaining things together. Sometimes I make little pieces of rubbish, but small pieces of rubbish can lead to something good.