Over the long years, my youtube channel has gone through a lot. From lengthy hiatuses, to shifts in channel concepts and different videos, my channel has been through a lot.

But it’s through these experiences that have changed the channel as well as myself over the years.

Even if you don’t have much of an idea for a Youtube channel, I think it’s important to get in front of a camera for a few reasons.

Barring the fact that video is massive and an important part of a marketing strategy, today I want to get personal. I want to focus more on the personal reasons to starting a channel or recording video in general.

You hear your voice.

Wow. Great first reason for shooting a video.

Silly, I’m aware of that, but it’s actually a big deal.

Even though we’ve heard ourselves talk to other people for as long as we’ve been alive, there is always a sense of weirdness to it the first time.

I know for myself there was a sense of doubt kind of like Yzma straight out of Emperor’s New Groove when she turned into a cat.

“Wait, is that MY voice?!?”

The reason why our voice is so different is normally when we hear it when we talk to others, our voice vibrates through our body. As such, our voice is actually altered slightly to our ears whereas with others they hear your actual voice. Here’s a video that explain the phenomenon.

Even though we know the reason why, this still comes as a bit of a shock when we hear our actual voice for the first time. Over time we do get used to it, but I see this revelation as a right of passage of sorts.

Of course we can change our own voice over time and we can train ourselves to get used to it. Furthermore we can continue to grow ourselves to the point that in recording we sound very much the same way as we talk to others. This only happens when we continue to practice.

The first thing is your voice, but right after that is your personality.

You pay attention to your words

There comes a point where you start to pay attention to what you tell yourself.

Even though in a video you are talking to your audience but that still doesn’t change the fact that you are talking to a camera.

You might as well be talking to yourself.

But more importantly, what you say does make a difference in your mood and mentality.

What we say matters a lot.

Take for example our health.

There was a study that was conducted that looked at peoples sources of pain and health limitations. In situations where doctors tell patients that they can’t lift over 20 pounds or that they have slipped discs those individuals will instinctively limit themselves based on that. Furthermore they’ll find themselves in more pain the longer they dwell on those words.

This is because they repeat those words in their head over the course of the day. It’s akin to having a “bad day”. People are in a bad mood because they milk one bad experience about their day all day long.

Conversely when doctors tell their patients words that heal like “People are like trees, we slowly adapt to changes”, they’ll heal faster because they believe that deep down.

My point in all this is that when you record yourself you can spot little things like that.

If you show doubt in yourself, that seeps into your life.

I of all people know this as I’ve been able to catch myself on camera and immediately correct myself right there. From small mannerisms to me saying “just” or words that instil some degree of doubt.

At the same time, motivating yourself with your words on camera can keep you going as well.

Some examples are boosting your morale can actually stem from saying no to certain things.

Either way when you record yourself and you take time to properly edit, you pay attention to that stuff.

It can be challenging and rewarding.

When I first started a channel, my goal was to help me become more comfortable with speaking. My early videos had me stuttering and in general I was shy and reserved.

But as time has gone on, I’ve slowly become comfortable and recently have been pushing myself for more.

These transformations I’ve gone through wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t start a channel.

In fact, if I didn’t start a vlog channel, I wouldn’t have been putting effort in finding ways to generate more money.

It’s why I find vlogging rewarding.

It allows you to focus ahead on what’s important. Hence why I’m prioritizing my writing more so than video. It’s also the reason why I’m excited to get back into video too.

Try This

You don’t need to upload any of your videos but I encourage everyone to at least make some videos and listen to yourself. Whether it’s an opinion piece or doing an actual vlog, do yourself a favour and try it out.

There are many benefits to vlogging that I wouldn’t be able to list here but I hope that by sharing some of my experiences thus far have helped you.

To your growth!

Eric S Burdon

This post is part of an 3 month writing challenge that I’m committing myself to. Every day for 3 months, I’ll be writing articles with specific criteria in mind. You can learn all about my reasoning as well as what that criteria is right here. This is 60 of 91 of this series.

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