My Thoughts on Why YouTubers are Quitting - Ali Abdaal - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00Hey friends, welcome back to the channel. So recently there seems to be a bit of an epidemic

00:04of YouTubers who seem to be quitting. It's not clickbait but I just, if I'm honest with you guys,

00:08don't want to do this anymore. I'm no longer going to be making these videos. For the first time in

00:14nearly five years I am bringing them to an end. Now it's time to take a breather. I can't keep

00:19this up. On March 9th I'll be hosting my last theory episode. And I think this is a very

00:25interesting phenomenon to study. It's interesting because on the surface YouTube seems to be a dream

00:30job. There's a lot of people who aspire to be YouTubers, who aspire to riches and fame and

00:36flexibility and you can work from wherever you want. But the people who are there, a lot of them

00:39seem to be quitting for various reasons. Burnout and tiredness and stress and all the stuff that

00:43we're going to go into. In this video I kind of want to talk through why people seem to be quitting

00:48and secondly what we can learn from their experience. And by we I kind of mean me. I'm

00:54sort of treating this video as a bit of like notes to myself because I'm a YouTuber in case

00:58you didn't know and I don't want to go the same way that a lot of these other YouTubers are going

01:02with the various reasons they're quitting the platform. Because for me it is a dream job. But

01:07I also think the phenomenon is interesting to study in the same way that when someone really

01:12rich tells us that oh actually money doesn't buy happiness. It's worth taking those things

01:16seriously as well because whether we whether we're conscious of it or not a lot of our behavior is

01:22driven by aspiration towards status, fame, money, success. And if the people who have gotten the

01:29thing that we think we want are telling us maybe I would you know maybe I would do differently or

01:35maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be. It's worth taking that seriously and figuring out

01:38okay cool what can I change about how I'm approaching my life now learning from the

01:42wisdom of these people who are already at this place where I aspire to be. Now a big reason that

01:46a lot of YouTubers seem to be citing for quitting is burnout to some degree or another. Like whether

01:51they're just really tired of all of this they've been doing it for seven plus years and they're

01:54just like they can't be bothered to do anymore. I'm so tired there's nothing in my life right now

01:59except work. Or they feel super stressed about it or they feel super depressed about it. I don't get

02:04any satisfaction from the type of work that I do here anymore. And there seem to be a few different

02:10reasons that YouTubers are citing for why they feel like they're experiencing this burnout. The

02:14first one is you sort of trade a nine-to-five job for a 24-7 job. And these days entrepreneurship

02:20and doing your own thing and having your own hustle and stuff is very very very glorified.

02:25It was kind of weird to be an entrepreneur maybe like 15 years ago where you know you'd be looked

02:29at weird if you had your own business. But now people seem to look at you weird if you don't

02:33have your own business. Especially if you you know if you follow the trends the various trends

02:38on social media. So it seems like you really trade a nine-to-five for a 24-7. I've definitely

02:42experienced this where back when I had a real job I would go home from work and unless I was

02:47really worried about like making a mistake that might kill someone. Which happened thankfully for

02:51a few times. Me worrying about that that is. I was able to get home from work and I was able to

02:55switch off. I was able to relax. I was able to do other things without work being always on my mind.

02:59But when I started my business back when I was like 19 from then on every waking hour has basically

03:06been spent thinking and strategizing and like working on in some way the business. When I'm in

03:11the shower I've been thinking about my YouTube channel and thinking about my business. When I'm

03:14at the gym I'm thinking about the YouTube channel and business. Even when I'm in conversations with

03:18friends at a restaurant or a board games night part of my brain is thinking about like content

03:24ideas. And it's something that really doesn't switch off. So this seems to be a big part of why

03:27people are quitting. Because they've traded the nine-to-five for a 24-7 and they're just tired

03:32of spending their entire like physiology and psychology thinking about this thing. A second

03:35big reason why people seem to be quitting is this feeling of being on a never-ending content

03:40hamster wheel. The algorithms are changing all the time. Audience preferences are changing all the

03:45time. Every single month each of these different social media platforms are becoming more and more

03:49saturated which means they're becoming more and more competitive. And so if you've built a career

03:54on this you sort of feel like well I can't stop now I have to just keep going. I have to make the

03:58next video and the next video in the next video. You make a video you release a TikTok you know

04:02whatever the thing might be and it's just on to the next one and the next and the next. And we

04:06sort of feel the sense of you know I can't afford to take a break because if I take a break well

04:12you know technically YouTube says that taking a break is fine for your channel but I know that

04:15you know if I didn't upload for a month then maybe my audience would forget me because

04:19there's all this other content and then maybe when my video comes out I don't know the algorithm

04:23might not notify the right people. And there's this whole thing that makes it feel you have to

04:27keep coming up with new stuff and you're never allowed to take a break. And it's coming up with

04:32new stuff that can also be really taxing really mentally taxing for people. For example let's say

04:36you're like me and you're making videos about personal development and productivity and if my

04:41channel were purely productivity if the only videos I thought I was allowed to make was videos about

04:45productivity I would start to feel very burned out very quickly because I'd run out of content ideas

04:50and I would feel like I'm repeating the same stuff over and over again and people in the comments

04:53would start to be like bro this is getting a bit repetitive and I would think ah but like but you

04:58don't get it like I need to be consistent I need to upload for the algorithm I need to upload for

05:01the audience like without the audience without the growth if you're not growing you're

05:04declining and I guess I have to repeat the content and like most people don't watch most of the

05:07videos so repeating the content is totally fine and you get into this sort of never-ending hamster

05:12wheel of content creation for the sake of consistency for the sake of audience and for

05:15the sake of the algorithm. Added to that you also have the feeling when you if you are lucky enough

05:19to make a living doing this sort of thing talking to a camera in your bedroom you think damn I've

05:24got it really good you know I don't want to go back to my day job I've got freedom fun flexibility

05:28I can do what I want I've got it so good I don't want to let it go and this feeling of if I don't

05:33stop working it might all go away is a really terrifying feeling that keeps up so many YouTubers

05:38at night including me. By the way if you're wondering about the absolutely sick background

05:42music that you've been hearing throughout this video then that is very kindly brought to you by

05:46Epidemic Sound who are in fact sponsoring this video. Now Epidemic Sound is amazing I've been

05:50using Epidemic Sound since 2017 since I first started my YouTube channel on the recommendation

05:54actually of Peter McKinnon when I was watching his stuff and Epidemic Sound are just the best

05:58source for background music. They've got an absolutely enormous library it's got over 40,000

06:02songs and 90,000 sound effects and all of these are restriction free so you can use them pretty

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06:18you can have like soaring and inspiring like instrumental and music with lyrics. Back when I

06:22was doing actual vlogs I was like really really going for like instrumental while I was talking

06:27and then like lyrics when I was doing b-roll. These days it's mostly instrumental music because

06:31most of our videos are me just talking throughout the whole thing and so within their absolutely

06:34huge library there is basically something for every kind of mood you could possibly imagine

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06:45the video description and that will give you a completely free seven-day trial and you can browse

06:49the library to your heart's content. So thank you so much Epidemic Sound for sponsoring this video

06:52and let's get back to it. Another thing that some YouTubers have cited is because when you become

06:56successful on a platform you then start to treat it more like a business and as you treat it more

07:01like a business you realize that delegation is a thing that you can do. You can maybe delegate

07:05your video editing, you can maybe delegate like coming up with video ideas, you can maybe hire a

07:09thumbnail designer to do the thumbnails because thumbnails are really important and maybe while

07:12you're there you can also delegate the writing of the videos because you know you don't need to be

07:14the one writing the videos and before you know it you have outsourced and optimized the fun out of

07:20the job that you have. You have turned it from a thing that you were once using to express your

07:25creativity and where you were overjoyed about the fact that you could provide value to an audience

07:28and you've turned it into a job where you've gone from a creator to a manager and most creators do

07:33not enjoy being managers. Most creators are not very good at being managers. I'm not very good

07:37at being a manager and so when I had to manage people I started to think oh my god like have I

07:42I've created this prison for myself where I feel like I'm on a constant kind of content hamster

07:46wheel. I have to keep on churning out the videos. I've hired people to take aspects of the job away

07:50from me so that I can make more videos but now I need to make more videos to keep up the salaries

07:54of those people who I've hired and also now I need to manage those people I've hired and they're

07:58people and people have like their own issues where now I need to worry about their personal

08:01development, their professional development. I need to make sure they're happy. I need to make sure I'm

08:04giving them enough work and if I want to take a break well I'm the one filming the videos and so

08:07the editor won't have anything to edit but I'm still paying the editor and so like I really

08:10shouldn't take a break and this whole thing just it's like the the the treadmill just keeps on

08:15continuing just at a at a higher and higher pace so you feel like you're having to run

08:19to just keep up with the fact that you now have a team to support. You have people's livelihoods

08:23that are at stake. You might have people who have quit their jobs and who have mortgages that are

08:27based on the salary that you're paying them so you even more feel like oh I can't take a break I

08:30better not screw this up which ties into the whole constant hamster wheel and yeah most creators do

08:35not enjoy being managers and another big thing that seems to happen is when you have been doing

08:40YouTube for long enough you have periods of boom and you have periods of bust. There are times when

08:46the channel is going really well and the business is flourishing and then there are the times where

08:50it's not and in those times where it's not you start to feel depressed you start to feel like oh

08:54my god are my videos even valuable anymore like no one's watching my stuff oh god like the channel

08:59is dying because the signals you get from YouTube analytics is that your channel is literally dying

09:04because the numbers are gray and the arrows are down and that feeling when something was growing

09:10and is now declining is a really really really hard feeling to uh come to terms with in any area

09:17of in any area of your life. In Will Smith's autobiography biography um Will uh he talked about

09:25how losing money is bad but losing fame is even worse. There is a certain pain that celebrities

09:31get when they start to feel irrelevant when they start to feel like they have lost the fame that

09:35they once had that really cuts at like the core of the human psyche where we have this intrinsic

09:41need for social status and for the approval of others because we're human and it's how humans

09:44have evolved like even in a in a small group if for example you have a group of eight friends and

09:48maybe like seven of those friends got into like a really good university and then you got into like

09:51a less good university and you feel like your your social status has been like reduced in the in the

09:55group it sounds trivial but it's a really painful experience. I had this experience in 2016 uh three

10:01years into running my first business 6med it was a business where I was helping people get into

10:04med school and for the first three years we were growing and growing and growing and then in year

10:07four the revenue declined by a little bit I think we did 150k revenue the year before and 140k

10:14the year after and that was like bloody hell I mean and it sounds weird like you know a business

10:20while I was in medical school doing 140k 150k like what difference does it really make

10:25but the reduction the fall the decline in the thing caused me to have this whole spiral of

10:30negativity and this whole spiral of like oh what am I doing with my life and eventually I read a

10:35couple of books about it and I wrote a blog post this was the very first blog post that I ever put

10:39online on my website uh time versus money and I came to a few realizations but it took me like

10:43months of journaling about this and thinking about it and talking to people about it reading

10:46books about it to come to terms with what on the surface was only a 10k drop in revenue and so these

10:51are a bunch of reasons why people seem to be quitting the platform and so the real question

10:55is what can we learn from this what can we learn I think a lot of this comes down to the analogy of

11:02the goose and the golden eggs there is a story of a farmer who has a goose and he realizes oh my

11:09goodness the golden goose lays these golden eggs wow and then he takes the eggs to market and they

11:14make lots of money and then the next day the goose lays some more eggs he takes the egg to market and

11:19it makes loads of money and the farmer gets rich he buys a fancy house and everything and all the

11:22time the goose just continues to lay these golden eggs and then one day the farmer decides you know

11:27what this goose has got a lot of golden eggs inside it so why don't I just kill the goose

11:32and then I'll open up the goose and I'll take up and I'll take all these golden eggs and then I'll

11:35be super rich and I'll be able to quit my job or you know whatever the thing might be and so he

11:39kills the goose he opens it up and lo and behold he finds no golden eggs and now the goose is dead

11:44and now there are no more golden eggs this is something that Stephen Covey uses as an example

11:48in his amazing book the seven habits of highly effective people and he calls it the difference

11:52between production and production capacity the goose is the production capacity it is the asset

11:58that creates the production the golden eggs all of life and work and business and everything is a

12:03balancing act between the golden eggs and the goose between the production and the production

12:07capacity and now when it comes to youtube videos or a business or a social media empire or anything

12:12the videos that you produce each day or each week or each month are the golden eggs and the asset

12:17that produces the videos i.e the creator themselves and their team is the goose and the thing that all

12:22these social media platforms encourage in a subconscious and very conscious way as well

12:27is a focus on the golden eggs and not thinking about the health of the goose it's a focus on

12:32what's that next video how does that next video perform to the other videos that you've that you've

12:35released what's the retention stats on that video oh you know there's sponsors on that video okay

12:39cool so the sponsors are looking at the last 10 golden eggs the last 10 videos to see how much did

12:43those golden eggs weigh and if you got more views on those videos you're more likely to get

12:46sponsorships and it's like okay cool and the next one the next one the next one and there is no

12:51analytic that is around like the health of the channel overall or the health and mental health

12:57and stability and sustainability of the creator who's doing the work or of the team that's behind

13:01the work and so a lot of the lessons that i'm personally taking away from this phenomenon of

13:04youtuber burnout and youtube is quitting the platform is really centering back to this idea of

13:12sure creating the golden eggs of youtube videos is a pretty freaking sick job it's a dream job

13:17in many ways but how do i make sure i'm not neglecting the goose itself i.e my own physical

13:21health my own mental health my own enjoyment of the process like the whole thing feeling

13:25enjoyable and sustainable for me and also the whole thing feeling enjoyable and sustainable

13:29and low stress for my team because that's the goose and the videos the golden eggs okay so

13:34practical strategies for doing so the first one is a quote that i came across recently from a video

13:38game developer who said that left unchecked gamers will optimize the fun out of the game they're

13:45playing left unchecked gamers will optimize the fun out of the game that they're playing and left

13:49unchecked youtubers will optimize the fun out of it when we're focusing on growth and optimization

13:54we stop focusing on having fun we stop focusing on feeling good about the videos

13:59we think okay the next video i make needs to go viral and so how do i make the most viral video

14:04how do i make the clickbaitiest title in the clickbaitiest thumbnail and how do i make sure

14:07like i'm not saying too much stuff and i'm not saying the stuff i want to say i'm saying the

14:10stuff the audience wants to hear and how do i make sure i can reply to all of this sort of stuff

14:15is optimizing is at risk of optimizing the fun out of the game and one way to keep the goose alive

14:23while it's creating golden eggs is to make the process enjoyable and keep it fun a question me

14:30and my team always think about is how do we help ali have more fun filming these videos

14:34tintin my youtube producer it's like front of mind for him it's like yeah sure you know my

14:37tpi is to grow the youtube channel and all that crap but also how do i make sure ali is enjoying

14:41the process because if ali stops enjoying the process then the whole business will die because

14:45me enjoying the process of making videos is one of the things that keeps the goose alive and so

14:49the note that i'm giving to myself is with anything i'm doing how do i make sure i'm not

14:53optimizing the fun out of it how do i make sure to keep the process enjoyable energizing and

14:57sustainable so that i can continue playing this game now on that note there is um a book called

15:05finite and infinite games um i haven't read the book but i've read like the first page which lays

15:10out the thesis of it which is basically in life there are two types of games there are finite

15:13games and then there are infinite games a finite game is played with the intention of winning the

15:17game a game of football for example it comes to a close there is a scoreboard and the goal is to

15:21win but then you have infinite games where the goal is not to win the game the goal is to keep

15:27on playing the game your relationship with your spouse is an infinite game your relationship with

15:31your family is an infinite game the goal is not to win or to get something out of it the goal is

15:35to just simply continue being able to play the game for me what i've realized is that youtube

15:40is now an infinite game youtube started off as a finite game for me where i was like oh you know

15:44i just want to do this channel for like two years and then i'll see what happens and then maybe

15:48one day it'll make money and now i'm at a point where i could turn youtube into a finite game

15:52where i'm thinking about a scoreboard and thinking about getting to the next subscriber

15:55milestone be like oh we're at five million let's go for 10 million and all that kind of stuff

15:58and treating it as a finite game that has a scoreboard or i could approach it like an

16:02infinite game and this is how i'm trying to approach youtube i don't really have a goal

16:06other than to be able to continue doing this thing i already have a dream job the only thing

16:10that makes sense is to continue to make it sustainable how do i ensure that i continue

16:14to have a dream job for the long term that means being okay with under optimizing for growth that

16:18means being okay with making a long ass video with like not a very clickbaity title and thumbnail

16:22that doesn't really fit into the category of productivity like this video just because i

16:26feel like it and i think there's something interesting to share here and i want to take

16:28away lessons from it for myself and i know that maybe one or two people in the audience might

16:32take away some lessons from it as well but i know it's a video that's not going to go viral

16:35it's a video that might not do too well in the algorithm but i'm doing it anyway because part

16:39of the whole thing is part of the goal is to be able to continue doing this thing now given that

16:44for me and for a lot of people i know youtube is an infinite game it's worth really connecting with

16:49why why are we playing this game at all why bother continuing to make youtube videos and basically

16:55every big youtuber i know actually every small youtuber as well basically every youtuber i know

16:59has an existential crisis about their youtube channel and their business about every three

17:03months where they question hmm why am i doing this again and i think those moments of questioning are

17:09really important because it's it's it is very useful to regularly question our motives and the

17:14reason why we're doing stuff when i find myself questioning why i'm doing youtube um every three

17:18months or so it always comes back to a few different prompts one of those prompts is that

17:23if i won the lottery if i had 100 million in the bank would i still continue doing youtube and the

17:28answer is yes i would still continue making videos and then i ask myself okay what form would that

17:32look like what does the youtube channel where i've got 100 million and i don't need to make money

17:35anymore what does that look like what it looks like is i get to make videos whenever i want i

17:40make videos about the topics that i feel like doing i don't think too hard about titles and

17:44thumbnails maybe i can let my team think about that and you know i'd be totally okay with making

17:47a video like this one where maybe it's not going to go viral but that's okay because i still want

17:50to make the video anyway if i read a book that i think is interesting like i don't know this one

17:54read this the other day i'm like you know what i'm just gonna make a video about it it's a cool book

17:58i've decided to make a video about it if there's like a series i want to make because i feel like

18:02there's a problem that people are struggling with and i have something to share you know what let's

18:05turn it into a video let's turn it into a series maybe i'll do vlogs every now and then and i do

18:08vlogs on my second channel which you can check out link down below if you want that's what i would do

18:11even if i won the lottery i would still make youtube videos and so a question i often think

18:16about is how can i act as if i've already won the lottery how can i build the youtube channel

18:22that i i would have even if i wasn't being paid for it and just lean lean as much into that as

18:27possible obviously there are market demands and it is a business at the end of the day so i mean

18:32i may not be able to lean 100 into that but knowing that that is my north star the dream

18:37youtube channel that i would do even if i won the lottery means that it sort of keep it gives me a

18:41destination to sort of aim towards and if i go too far off that destination because if the titles and

18:46thumbnails start to become a bit too clickbaity or we've got too many sponsors and any all of this

18:50sort of stuff it allows me to see the north star of the destination and to be able to revert back

18:54to be like okay now let's take things back a little bit and it's never going to be perfect

18:58it's always going to be a bit of a windy path to stay on track with the destination but knowing

19:01that that destination is there the youtube channel i would have even if i won the lottery

19:05that to me gives me a lot of clarity now the problem is one problem that i do sometimes see

19:10is where i have lots of friends who do youtube but they would not do youtube if they won the lottery

19:18they are doing youtube primarily for money because it is a thing that makes revenue and makes profit

19:23and gives them fun freedom flexibility but if they had if they didn't care about making money

19:27they would honestly not do youtube this is a harder place to be because now the reason you're

19:32doing it is for the money and it has now become a job it is very hard for something to feel like

19:37play or to feel like fun if the primary reason for doing it is for the money there are still

19:42plenty of ways to do so you can read my book there's a whole like three chapters about how

19:45to make everything you're doing a little bit more fun but if the primary reason especially

19:49if the only reason you're doing a youtube channel is to make money oh that's going to run into all

19:53these problems with the burnout stuff so whether you're in that position or not whether you're

19:57like me and you would do youtube anyway or whether you're like some of my friends and you're

20:00you're kind of primarily doing it for the money either way the place we want to get to is a place

20:04of service and daniel pink has a great book called drive which is all about intrinsic motivation

20:08intrinsic motivation is the motivation that we where we do something for the sake of the thing

20:12itself whereas extrinsic motivation is when we're doing something for the for the sake of the

20:15external reward associated with it i am doing youtube for the money it's extrinsic motivation

20:21i'm doing youtube because it's fun and because i can help people is intrinsic motivation we connect

20:26to intrinsic motivation when we feel like there is a purpose behind the thing that we're trying to

20:30do the three things that dan pink talks about are from self-determination theory in psychology

20:34and their autonomy mastery and purpose autonomy we have freedom and flexibility to do what we want

20:40you kind of get that in youtube to an extent if you don't worry too much about the algorithm and

20:43you don't worry too much about what the audience wants mastery the feeling that you are getting

20:46better at the thing that is profoundly addictive that profoundly leads to intrinsic motivation

20:50you can get that through youtube by trying to make your videos a little bit better over time

20:53and purpose the feeling that the thing that we are doing has a purpose beyond just ourself it has

20:59a way of helping other people and so the point of this video is not for me to make money even though

21:04i might make money from it the point of this video is not for me to grow my following even though it

21:08might happen the point of this video is service is to help the person who is watching the video on

21:13the other end how do we connect into that how do we tap into that spirit of service i have a bunch

21:18of different methods for doing this because i've realized over the years that this is ridiculously

21:21important i have a whole like five step thing that i read whenever i read to myself whenever i

21:26do a video this is what that thing says i don't care about the performance of this video my only

21:32goal in making it is to share a message that i think is worth sharing for whoever wants to hear

21:36it point number two i intend to integrate my mind heart and soul to share this message in a way that

21:42feels authentic and natural point number three i'm not trying to force anything here i am merely

21:48speaking from the heart with the mind to inform structure and content and the soul to remain

21:52connected to the purpose behind the video point number four i'm going to enjoy myself and treat

21:58this process with lightness and ease when i'm on my deathbed i would give anything to be back here

22:02in the present moment doing what i love sharing myself and my learnings with the world in a way

22:06that's enjoyable and energizing i'm going to keep that in mind and not treat this process with too

22:11much seriousness heaviness or importance and point number five i'm speaking to an individual who

22:17really cares what i have to say and who really wants to learn from me to level up their own life

22:22i am in service to that person not to my own ego not to the retention stats not to the algorithm

22:28i'm purely in service to the person who has clicked on this video and whose life can genuinely be

22:32changed by what i'm about to say that is a five-step kind of mantra affirmation whatever

22:36you want to call it that i read before i do videos as a way of connecting to the spirit of service

22:41behind the video the other thing i find super helpful personally for connecting with the spirit

22:45of service is this may sound a bit grandiose but bear with me basically what i imagine when i'm

22:52planning a video is i imagine that i am a university lecturer and i've got tenure and i do a weekly

22:59lecture series titled how to build a life you love and every week i show up and i deliver a lecture

23:05and when i'm giving this lecture you know it might be 20 minutes long it might be 30 40 50

23:09minutes long whatever maybe there's some q a at the end but i'm delivering it to a lecture hall

23:14with 100 people and they all really want to be there the reason they're there they don't have to

23:19be it's not compulsory they're not taking they're not getting any extra credits by doing so but

23:23they're there because they really want to be and they're hanging on to my every word because they

23:27look up to me and they think that i have something to offer that could help them build a life they

23:31love and when i connect to that when i really visualize that that thing i'm just i'm just i'm

23:34just a lecturer i'm just speaking about this thing now every video i make is with that in mind when

23:41i'm making a video about a book that teaches you how to make a million dollars in a weekend it's

23:45it's a bit of a clickbaity title it's a really good book by my friend uh no okay it's good

23:49would recommend reading it but when i'm making the video when i'm planning the video what i'm

23:52thinking is okay this next lecture is about what we can learn from the book million dollar weekend

23:59and how we can apply it to help build a life that we love so how do i connect to that rather than

24:05how do i connect to oh the revenue per meal for this video is going to be high because the book

24:09about finance and oh this video might get views because it's about how to start a business and

24:13everyone started business i'm like when i start thinking in those ways i start to get into this

24:17extrinsically motivated reason for doing the video when i think hey i'm just a lecturer here i'm here

24:21to share stuff then i think okay cool what can i share from the heart that would genuinely help

24:25people based on my reading of the book and based on my own experience with entrepreneurship that

24:28can help people build a life they love i keep on having to come back to this because again

24:31the default if we don't think about this stuff actively is to fixate on the numbers and the

24:37metrics that show up on youtube stats and like the social media whereas when we can find a way

24:40to connect to the spirit of service which is partly why i love doing talks in person because

24:44people will come up to me and be like oh my god that was amazing it really helps me connect to

24:47the spirit of service connect to the spirit of service in anything that you're doing and it will

24:51become more enjoyable energizing and intrinsically motivating now final thing to mention um is

24:55something that i took away from a zoom call that i had with james clear so when i was in the process

25:00of figuring out like the promotion strategy for my book uh james clear the author of atomic habits

25:04very kindly offered to hop on a zoom call with me and we talked about like i don't know marketing

25:09strategies and this sort of stuff and one of the main reasons i actually wanted i wanted to speak

25:14to him wasn't because he could help me with marketing even though he could do that but it

25:16was because i wanted to ask what his life is like so james clear has sold a stupidly large number of

25:21copies of his book atomic habits he's made loads and loads of money but he doesn't seem to be

25:27striving for more and more he has not created an online course called the atomic habits academy

25:32he has not tried to launch a high ticket offer he's not trying to grow his team particularly i

25:35think he has like one team member he does like two talks a month or something like that he's got a

25:38wife and kids he takes the kids to school and picks them up every single day and doesn't seem to be

25:43working too hard he doesn't seem to be going for growth at all costs i gathered all this just from

25:48kind of observing him from like the background and so i i asked him hey man like you know you're

25:52pretty successful like how do you how do you think about spending your time and growth and business

25:57and stuff and why don't you make a atomic habits academy course and what he said was really

26:01interesting he was like you know what i realized is the thing that works for me is to draw a box

26:07around what i want my day and my life to look like and within the context of that box i have a block

26:13for work and within that work box i will then optimize for money and so he said for him you

26:18know his box is like he he knows he wants to be there as a present dad he knows he knows he wants

26:22to take his kids to school and pick them up and so he knows that he only wants to work between like 10

26:27a.m and like 3 p.m or something like that this is the box that he's created around what he wants

26:31he has defined constraints for himself if he were to work harder to make an online course

26:36it would probably go outside of those constraints he would need a bigger team he would need to

26:39become a manager he's decided screw that i actually don't want that i love that way of

26:42thinking because so often we think about the goal we think about what's the thing that i want and we

26:46don't think about what are the constraints that i would like to operate under because if you just

26:50define a goal as you know i want to make two videos a week or i want to get to a million

26:53subscribers or whatever the thing might be without defining the limits of the box then you start to

26:58stretch into burnout territory you start to think well i've only published one video this week and i

27:01needed to do two and so like consistency is important and algorithm and audience so you know

27:06what just this once i'm going to skip a workout or just this once i'm going to cancel on my friends

27:10but if you define the box as and you know this is what the most the happiest entrepreneurs i know do

27:15if you define the box as i'm only allowed to work between 10 a.m and 3 p.m and i'm never going to

27:20work beyond that and i never work to deadlines and if i'm ill i take the time off and i give myself

27:26a month off every quarter or something like that like you can define whatever constraints you want

27:32and within those constraints you can find a way to get to the goal now within those constraints

27:35the goal might be unrealistic in which case great let's change the goal but it's it's like starting

27:40with lifestyle first what is the life that you want and then thinking about your business or

27:44your youtube channel or your work second instead of going like i want a youtube channel to hit 10

27:48million subscribers and then thinking like what life do i want i think more of a recipe for like

27:54a happy fulfilled balanced life is what is the life i want and what is the youtube channel or

27:59the business or the job that helps facilitate that without taking away from the actual lifestyle

28:05because this is the real problem with entrepreneurship yes it's freaking amazing

28:08to be able to have autonomy and mastery and purpose and to do your own thing and to be able

28:11to work from anywhere and to make stupid stupidly large amounts of money while doing the thing in a

28:14way that you correlate from your time and to make money while you sleep and passive income all of

28:18that stuff is freaking incredible but we have to recognize that all of that stuff is a means to an

28:24end it is not the end in itself and the end that we're going for is a healthy happy balanced

28:29fulfilled and meaningful life and so if we're sacrificing our health and our relationships for

28:34the sake of making more money even though we don't need that money that's like why are we doing the

28:39thing and so recently you know you might you guys might have seen the life update video i did i said

28:43hey i've decided i'm not going to have any deadlines on the videos i'm just i've decided i'm

28:47going to film whatever videos i want rather than the videos i think the audience wants although

28:49there's obviously a little bit of a little bit of both there i've decided i'm not going to be

28:52overly focused on like trying to optimize for retention and stuff these are the constraints

28:57that i've added to my life and to my business which may well hinder growth but they're constraints

29:03that help me live the life that i want and the business then supports the life rather than the

29:08other way around i was at a good um a retreat that was run by my my friend tiago forte where i met a

29:14bunch of other online course creator author type people and one of the questions that one of the

29:20people asked was you know just like a question to think about do you work for your business

29:25or does your business work for you and at the time this was about a year ago i definitely felt

29:30like i worked for my business i felt like i was an employee of this business that i'd created

29:35and i had all these things i had to do and i didn't have too much autonomy and over time i've

29:39tried to get more to the point where i feel like my business works for me i start with the life i

29:44want and the business helps facilitate that rather than the other way around now one of the ways to

29:48do this is to you know ideally try and build a business that doesn't rely on the views because

29:54you know a lot of youtubers i know who rely on adsense and brand deals to get their money

29:57and to support their business and the team and stuff that is a recipe for burnout because now

30:01you're chasing views constantly but whereas what i'm trying to get to with our business

30:05and what a lot of other youtubers i know are trying to do as well is how do we get to a point

30:08where the videos where where we're not so reliant on the view count on videos and this involves

30:13actually just building a business and like trying to build products that add value to people outside

30:19of kind of the value that the creator themselves adds to the process it involves building systems

30:24for sales and marketing and operations and finance and like legal and hr and like all of the stuff

30:28around building a business one way in which me and my team are trying to build this business

30:33that isn't relying on view counts is we have a program called the part-time youtuber accelerator

30:38which is like a 12-month program where if you join you have to apply to join uh you basically get

30:43help from me and my team in growing your youtube channel or your business and you can get like

30:47office hours with my team every single week and like loads of support from our team of customer

30:51success people we get like amazing results for our students like our students absolutely love it

30:54and you know if you're new to youtube but like it sort of gives you a bit of a sort of emotional

30:58support in getting getting the channel off the ground and if you're a pro already then you kind

31:03of shortcut a lot of the learning process and you learn from the systems that we've already created

31:06but the nice thing is that a lot of this stuff is de-correlated from me as an individual our

31:11students are coming to my team with support requests and the team can can make that happen

31:15rather than coming to me specifically to be like hey ali i need your help with thing x

31:19but it's like things like that that we're trying to think about a lot more where

31:22it's like figuring out like what is this what is the subset of our audience that has a specific

31:28problem and then how can we as a business solve that problem in a way where me as an individual

31:33i don't need to be massively involved the final thing i really want to say in this video is you

31:37know there's this quote from buddhism or wherever which is the only constant is change you know

31:44i've made this video essentially as notes to myself things that i would like to keep in mind

31:47for myself to continue playing the infinite game of youtube because i've been doing it for seven

31:51years now it still is a dream job provided i keep in mind the goose and the golden egg stuff and

31:56provided i keep in mind the things i've said in this video but at some point i may also quit youtube

32:01and as and when i do that will also be okay everything will work out okay in the end there's

32:07never any reason to worry all that stuff but i would like the decision to to do that to not be

32:12a decision born out of pain but a decision that's born out of a desire for something different

32:18um i don't want it to feel like oh doing i'd love to continue doing youtube but it's just getting

32:22so painful and i'm just so tired of it instead i'd love to feel like you know what it's actually

32:26been a great ride and i'm even more excited about doing something else um that's where i'd like to

32:32be with this youtubey type stuff and so as long as the journey continues if you've watched to

32:37the end of this ridiculously long video i hope that you might choose to follow along and watch

32:42some of the videos and maybe sign up to my newsletter alimdoll.com slash sunday i send

32:45an email every week but if not then that's also okay one of the big realizations i think that a

32:50lot of youtubers come to is that the audience is also impermanent the people who follow my

32:55channel three years ago are broadly not the same as the people who are watching my channel right now

33:00and that's also totally okay um just being okay with the fact that like you put videos out there

33:06and they might not get as many views as the ones we put out two years ago three years ago four

33:10years ago five years ago it's also okay as long as we just sort of keep in mind the fact that

33:14it's in the spirit of service the goal is not to grow the audience the goal is to help people the

33:18goal is to connect to that spirit of service the goal is to provide as much value as possible

33:23and if the audience grows as a side effect then that's amazing and ideally generates leads for a

33:28business to help make the business be a vehicle that doesn't rely on me and that's also amazing

33:32i hope you enjoyed this video uh if you did and you've not yet seen my really long life update

33:36video you probably have an appetite for really long videos you might like to check that out over

33:38there i'd also love to hear in the comments what is one thing that you've personally taken away

33:41from this video if you've gotten to the end uh that you can help apply to your own life whether

33:45you're a youtuber or not i'd love to hear that down in the comments i read all of them even if

33:48i can't reply to all of them but yeah check out this video if you want to see another really long

33:52one about like my thoughts about youtube and like what it's like to be a youtuber and stuff

33:55like that anyway thank you so much for watching have a lovely day and i'll see you next time

My Thoughts on Why YouTubers are Quitting - Ali Abdaal

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