Hello! Checking in with some stats about how things are going with my seasonal game mode related vids/plans... Safe to say, it's going well lol. Just had a MASSIVE vid last night. Was really tough to throw together quickly but that thing took off really hard and will likely continue to tick up in the coming weeks. 27k views! That is wild for such a short time -- it is now my most viewed vid on the channel. Really cool to see. I had my first real experience of waking up to like 300 comments and that was overwhelming. I did manage to get through them all, but I can understand now why larger creators don't. Think it took me roughly 4 hours to knock them all out. Eek! lol I also want to add a quick note since I was talking with @Gemma Ferguson the other day about this. Something that has been really helpful for me in this process is very clearly defining why I'm doing this experiment, and then further defining the scope of the experiment/videos. To elaborate a bit: I have made seasonal content before. Every time it does better than my other videos, generally takes less time to produce, and has helped in growing the channel past milestones plus highlighted areas to improve in my production process. All of these things are really great, so to boil it down a bit; I do these stress tests for massive channel growth and process improvement. In this particular stint I also wanted to see if I could front load my content and then essentially relax once the game mode started (imagine actually playing and enjoying the game you make videos on lol). This is where I was coming from when I started this. Now, on the scoping out of the experiment/videos -- one thing I learned in previously stints like this is that making content quickly sucks. I work full time, so I often don't have that much time day to day. The way I get around this is by defining the space I have for making videos during the entire season plus each day and then deciding what I think I can fit within that. I am not always perfect at this but it does give me a much better success rate. Only have 2 hours to work on a Wednesday? Ok. What tasks or smaller videos could I fit into that time frame to keep with this seasonal game mode? I essentially work backwards from what time I know I'll have available and then decide what can slot in there. What I ended up with this time was essentially 2 months of content planned. The first 3-4 weeks would be at a pace of 2-3 vids a week. I had space in the following 3-4 weeks for daily videos (this is the phase I am in currently) and then a bit of space on the end for a few larger daily videos as the game mode kicks off. I'll be trailing with 2-3 follow up videos after the fact, but the main goal is to allow myself space to enjoy the game mode.

Hello again skoolmates 🫡 I'm on the hunt for someone who can edit my streams into clips and youtube videos. Does anyone have anyone they'd like to recommend? Or sites they've used to hire editors in the past? I have a clear vision and reference for what I'm going for, so I'm hoping I can hand off my stream recordings and it to someone without stressing about it. I'm finding that editing these myself is zero fun and too time-consuming for me 😅

It seems like it is my year, after several decades of never winning any awards, I have won Country ACt of the Year for the New England Music Awards. I thought I would share. Keep pushing, pace yourself. That's what I tell myself. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCO5m8FxxPW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

We absolutely have to shout out Mr @Houston Bernard! This man has been on a tear. 🔥 - won not one but TWO big awards in the country music space in the last month (try watching this without getting emotional) - posts every video he makes, welcoming brutally honest feedback, then actually uses that feedback - has stayed consistent in his posting despite a hectic schedule - increased his view count by 21% and watch time by 38% since joining Grindstone - won the last TWO Grindstone Games (will anyone dethrone this man??) BIG congrats man. Super glad you're part of this community. 😊 ••• PS—every month we're going to have a new theme, question, challenge, or prompt. This month is a two-part question: 1. What are you doing that you know doesn't work? 2. What are you NOT doing that you know works?

Here's my latest convo with Mario Joos—a YouTube retention expert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CXCTc_Szd4 It's also my first podcast YouTube upload in almost 2 years. Hope it's useful. We discuss: - proper CTAs - how to not get emotional over numbers - why viewers stop watching - much more