Full transcript
0:00Yep. Sorry, I am making one of these
0:02videos. Hopefully, the title and
0:04thumbnail were not too click-baity for
0:06you.
0:07But,
0:08I have some things to talk about, and
0:09this is important.
0:11>> [snorts]
0:11>> Lately, I have found myself a bit
0:13dissatisfied with
0:15making YouTube videos.
0:17It's felt a whole lot like a grind,
0:19feeling like something that I can't step
0:21away from. That's the most stressful
0:23part of it. I don't feel like I can take
0:26breaks, at least not for very long. If I
0:28do take a break, I have to like plan
0:31extra videos ahead of time.
0:33So, it's really difficult to
0:35figure that out, and makes it so that
0:39vacations and things don't really feel
0:41that much like a vacation. And I realize
0:43some of that might just be
0:46my own view of things, right?
0:48And that if I just worked on my
0:51my inner shadow or something like that,
0:53I could I could help that. Uh but, it's
0:56felt like something I I haven't been
0:57able to step away from, and it's
0:59honestly
1:01uh often gotten in the way of things I
1:03do want to work on. I often have these
1:04big projects that can sometimes
1:06take me weeks to complete, and
1:10uh you know, I just want to go into monk
1:12mode and just focus on one or two things
1:14at a time, and and YouTube sort of
1:17nudges me away from that. And the other
1:19side to that is that while this channel
1:22has continued to grow in terms of
1:24subscribers and things, where
1:25as I'm recording this, we're just about
1:27to hit 90,000, so we're very, very close
1:31to 100,000. So, be sure if you're not
1:33subscribed, and you follow my content,
1:35please make sure to subscribe down
1:37below.
1:38But, I've honestly I've tried to a whole
1:40bunch of different strategies. I've
1:42tried some experiments on this channel,
1:43and I've decided that a lot of what I've
1:45been doing is just not sustainable. So,
1:49to put it bluntly, I'm going to be
1:51switching to a model that will work
1:53better for me.
1:54Now, I am not going to be abandoning
1:57YouTube, don't worry. This isn't that
1:59kind of a video. I'm still going to be
2:01making content for this channel, but it
2:03might change a little bit.
2:06Um first of all, I'm going to be doing
2:08only one video a week that is designed
2:11to be what we call top of funnel.
2:14And by that I mean videos meant for
2:17people that don't necessarily know who I
2:19am yet, and it's meant to sort of
2:21attract a lot of those people. These
2:22videos tend to have a lot more editing
2:24in them.
2:25Uh you know, like a lot of jump cuts and
2:28flashy things.
2:30And they're often, if you're the kind of
2:32person that's been following me for a
2:34long time, those videos will often seem
2:36a bit redundant, like I've done that
2:38before. That's because we literally are
2:40just going over the same types of top
2:43topics
2:44over and over and over and over again in
2:46different ways because that's the kind
2:48of stuff that we have to put out there
2:50for the newcomer.
2:52But beyond that, everything that I talk
2:55about, all of the rest of the videos
2:57that I'm going to be doing, is merely
3:00going to document and track what I am
3:03currently working on building or
3:05learning myself. And who knows, I may
3:07find that even this is not a really good
3:09idea, maybe these videos won't blow up
3:10like I expect them to. But I think a lot
3:13of this will go back to the beginnings
3:16of this channel when it was just
3:18a nerdy novelist discovering these new
3:20AI tools and putting them to good use
3:23and sharing what I was learning with the
3:24world. And that's kind of what I want to
3:27go back to. A lot of those early videos
3:29didn't have flashy editing, it was just
3:31me and my computer screen.
3:34And that was enough, I feel like, for a
3:36lot of people.
3:38So, let's talk a little bit about some
3:40of the stuff that's coming up in my
3:42future forecast as best as I can predict
3:45it right now.
3:46And um and what So, what the content
3:49will look like overall.
3:52First of all, uh inside my membership we
3:54have we've been developing these genre
3:56guides. Really cool things. One of the
3:58most uniquely
4:00valuable things that I have created, I
4:02think.
4:03And I still have to finish that project.
4:06It's a huge project. There's over 200 of
4:08them and I've only done like 40.
4:10And
4:12most I mean, I could do them in not too
4:15much time if it was the only thing that
4:17I was working on.
4:18Uh but obviously I have to juggle this
4:21business and some other businesses and
4:23stuff. So, I'm going to be working to
4:26get some help on those with the
4:28formatting and the cover design and
4:30everything so I don't have to work on
4:31that as much.
4:32But
4:33beyond that
4:35I need to I have a project that I'm
4:38calling the storytelling database.
4:41And the way this is going to work is I'm
4:43actually super excited for this. The way
4:45my brain works it likes to sort of
4:47document information. And so the
4:50storytelling database is very much
4:51something that my brain just lights up
4:53when thinking about.
4:55But the idea behind this is this going
4:56to be a catalog, a list of as many
4:59tropes, character archetypes, subplots,
5:04um
5:05world building elements, you name it,
5:07that we can think of. Um I'm going to
5:10create a bunch of those and the idea
5:11behind these is that you could have
5:13let's say you're you've established what
5:15genre you want.
5:17And the metaphor I like to use here is a
5:19frozen yogurt place. So, imagine you go
5:21to a frozen yogurt place
5:23and you the the base that you get, so
5:26chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, you
5:28know, something like that.
5:29That consider that your genre. You pick
5:32the main genre. But there are a million
5:34there's an infinite number of ways in
5:36which you can customize this genre to
5:38make it more unique and to make it fresh
5:40while not disturbing the tropes and the
5:43key part key parts of the genre that
5:45make it that genre, right? That make the
5:48readers like that genre. You you need to
5:51have some sort of variety to make it
5:53fresh, but not too much to make it
5:55alienating to the audience. And so the
5:57idea behind the storytelling database is
5:59it's a little bit like the things that
6:01you the toppings and the mix-ins that
6:03you can put into your frozen yogurt,
6:05right? So you get your base genre, let's
6:08say it's chocolate, right? And then on
6:10chocolate you can put cookie crumbles or
6:11sprinkles or cherries or whatever you
6:14can think of um that that you enjoy to
6:16make it more fresh and uniquely your
6:18own.
6:19And so I'm planning on creating this
6:21whole storytelling database and
6:23integrating it with Story Hacker OS so
6:25that you can choose your genre and then
6:27say, "Oh, and I want this subplot and
6:29this extra trope and this character type
6:32and
6:33you know, XYZ world-building elements."
6:36And mix that all together, it'll create
6:39a fresh new template for you to use and
6:41then you can use that to write your
6:42book.
6:43That's the next big project. I'm not
6:45really sure how I'm going to go about
6:47documenting that whole thing for
6:49YouTube, but I will figure out a way.
6:52But the other big thing that's happening
6:53right now that I've already started is I
6:56am building
6:59my own Hermes
7:01agentic dashboard.
7:03The idea for this is
7:06where this is coming from is that I run
7:10a big business. It's it does well for
7:11me.
7:12It you know, it's not a huge business,
7:14but it's big for one person to be
7:16running, right? And I've really wanted
7:19to branch out and do some other smaller
7:22businesses or some experimental
7:23businesses or even most notably my
7:26fiction, right? I want to build out my
7:28fiction more, but find that it's very
7:30difficult to do those things while I'm
7:31focusing on growing Story Hacker and
7:33Nerdy Novelist.
7:35And I want to change that. I want to be
7:37able to have my cake and eat it, too, in
7:39this case. And so part of what I'm going
7:42to be doing is automating every single
7:44thing that I can in my life so that I
7:47can focus more on those things that I
7:48want to spend time on.
7:50And I will do that either with AI or
7:52with an actual human depending on what
7:54the task is cuz
7:57obviously AI can't do everything for me.
7:59So, part of that process is building a
8:01Hermes agent. If you're unfamiliar with
8:03Hermes agents, just go look it up on
8:05YouTube. Tons of videos about it. It is
8:07the frontier of writing right now. Uh or
8:10not just writing, but coding and any
8:13number of things that require LLMs.
8:16And I'm essentially going to be building
8:18out something for my business that
8:19covers my personal life, my health, my
8:22uh journaling, my task management, as
8:26well as individual things for every
8:28single part of my process that I have in
8:31my business. For everything from uh like
8:34writing of actual books to formatting
8:36them to publishing them on KDP. You
8:39know,
8:40everything I can automate, I'm going to
8:42automate. And if I can't automate it,
8:44I'm going to give it to another person
8:46unless it's the kind of thing that is
8:48specific for me that like I am the
8:51person that is best suited to be working
8:53on those things. But right now, I am the
8:55biggest bottleneck in my business and I
8:59need to fix that. So, I will be
9:00documenting the whole process of setting
9:02up Hermes and uh showing you how you can
9:04create your own Hermes if you want. Um a
9:07lot of this stuff is not going to be
9:09like software that I sell to people
9:12because just of the nature of it, it
9:14wouldn't necessarily work well like
9:15that. These are going to be like a bunch
9:17of little micro softwares that are tied
9:20together in a single interface that I
9:22can interact with that's really going to
9:24be just for me. This is one of the cool
9:26powerful things about AI right now is
9:29that you can create pretty easily little
9:32micro tools to help you out in your life
9:36and your business. And to really take a
9:38lot of that cognitive load off so you
9:40can focus on the more important things.
9:42So that's a big thing that's going to be
9:43happening and will be a multiple a
9:46multi-month project with a lot of little
9:49aspects, all of which I'm going to be
9:50documenting and putting on this channel.
9:52Um the next big thing is of course my
9:55fiction business. I already mentioned
9:57this. Um
9:58one of the things that was holding me up
9:59with developing my fiction business is I
10:01kind of went at it with this idea that
10:04I need to make this work the way any
10:07normal Joe Schmo would make it work.
10:11And I've kind of realized
10:13that that's not really something I can
10:15realistically do
10:17because I am not in that same position.
10:20I have another business to run. I need
10:23to be able to run that business and I
10:24also need to outsource as much of the
10:27publishing business as I can to AI or to
10:30a human
10:31so that I can focus on only those parts
10:33of building that business that only I
10:36can do.
10:37And so I'm going to be doing some things
10:39like using ghostwriters like
10:42probably hiring someone to to format my
10:45books and things like that giving those
10:47to an assistant or something that most
10:48people wouldn't normally do because they
10:50could just do it themselves. And I could
10:52do it myself but
10:53you know like I said I've got other
10:54businesses to run. So I've got to be
10:57able to
10:58outsource as much as I can while keeping
11:01the parts that I like the most and that
11:03only I can do.
11:05The other thing and this is this is a
11:07fun one. This is another micro business
11:08that I would that I've really gotten
11:10into and I really want to start.
11:12Uh but it's around the Pokémon
11:15franchise.
11:16Uh there are tons of Pokémon YouTube
11:18channels out there and little businesses
11:19and I actually
11:21I'm I'm a sort of passive or I have been
11:24a passive fan of Pokémon for a long time
11:26but recently I saw one of my mentors
11:29uh Pat Flynn
11:31getting into it over the last couple of
11:32years and he has done some of the
11:34phenomenal things there and just really
11:36got me excited about the franchise
11:37again.
11:38Uh as as someone who I think it's like
11:40really important to be embracing your
11:42inner child.
11:44And so I actually started uh vibe coding
11:46a piece of software and I got a good
11:50fair bit into it and just was having the
11:52time of my life and actually creating
11:53something I think would be generally
11:55useful for people. I did hit a road
11:58block at some point and feel like I need
12:00to like offload that to someone else. So
12:02I did eventually get my developer who
12:04works on Story Hacker OS to he's to he's
12:07taking over after I got it to a certain
12:09point.
12:10Uh and that's probably a good thing cuz
12:11that'll help him to he'll he'll be able
12:13to make sure everything's like actually
12:15squeaky clean.
12:16But I need to I I really want to work on
12:19that a little bit. Uh
12:21on right now it's more of a hobby in the
12:23hobby area, but I think it'd be really
12:24cool. I need to do YouTube channels for
12:26both of those businesses. So um cuz
12:28YouTube is where my expertise is. So I
12:31need to do something for my fiction
12:32business, something for the Pokémon
12:33business. I already have ideas for that.
12:36And um and I'll have a software as a
12:38service uh some kind of software tool
12:40for both as well. I have an idea for a
12:43software tool for the fiction business
12:45that would be free to people that uh
12:47would just be a essentially the the
12:49equivalent of a of a lead magnet, a
12:51reader magnet.
12:52And uh then who knows what's going to
12:54happen after that. But as you can tell,
12:55there's a lot going on. I need to really
12:58focus myself in order to be able to
13:00handle all of that and I might not even
13:02be able to handle all of that. May I
13:03might have to set something here aside,
13:06but I do want to at least get the
13:07fiction up and running and really
13:10streamline both businesses.
13:12So because of that, we're going to be
13:14just documenting everything and that's
13:16going to be the majority of the content
13:17that goes on this channel for the next
13:19little while.
13:20Uh other than a few videos here and
13:22there that are kind of more for
13:23beginners just coming in.
13:25And that will be stuff that we've sort
13:27of talked about before. So, those are my
13:29thoughts. Hopefully, this has been
13:32enlightening for you.
13:34And and hopefully, this is the start of
13:36a very brand new exciting era for myself
13:40and for all of you. And I'll see you in
13:42the next video.