We Can Do Hard Things: Encouraging New Ventures

Welcome back to another episode of the Balanced Blueprint! I’m Robert and I appreciate you guys tuning in. Today’s episode is going to be labeled “We Can Do Hard Things”.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and she is going through a life change as well. She’s looking for different ways of earning income and changing jobs. I mentioned to her that she should start a YouTube channel because she’s an awesome photographer and should use her photography as her platform. She does photography on the side, covering weddings and other events. I told her she needs to do that.

She said, “Well, I don’t think I know enough or that I’m good enough, or that anybody would want to watch my videos.” I just chuckled because that’s the same thing I said when I first started. Her photography skills are great; I have seen her work and she does really, really nice photography.

Overcoming Self-Doubt

I told her, “You don’t have to be a super professional or some super expert. You don’t have to be the best; you just have to be you and you just have to do it. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.” She already has the camera equipment because she has professional camera equipment. It’s just a matter of creating the channel and creating a brand, which she already has because she has a logo for herself, and it looks really good.

I was encouraging her to do that, and she was still like, “I’m not really sure. I just don’t know if it’s that easy to do.” Again, I told her it is easy, and the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better you become. You just have to do it.

Embracing New Opportunities

One of the common themes I find is that when people are dealing with life changes or want to try something new, they let all the thoughts of doubts and “what-ifs” get in the way of actually just going out and doing it. Again, she is a great photographer. Photography and how-tos are huge on YouTube. A lot of people watch them; I watch them, and I’m not even a photographer, but I like photography and enjoy looking at other people’s images and videos. I love their creativity.

I really encouraged her to go out and do that. She said, “You know, maybe I’ll do that. I appreciate you telling me about that, and I’m going to look into it and see if it’s something that I can get started with or if I want to do it.” I said, “You know, that’s fine. Check it out, and if it’s not for you, it’s not for you. But don’t not do it because you think you’re not good enough or not professional enough or don’t know enough, because I guarantee you that you do and you are.”

I just want to encourage everybody that if you are facing some type of life change or you just want to do something different and you want to pursue getting into the YouTube scene to create content, then just go do it. Use your laptop, use your phone, go get your webcam. You don’t have to have super fancy equipment. I don’t have super fancy equipment. I would say that it’s a good idea to invest in a good microphone because I find that the audio sometimes is more important than the video. If people can hear you, they can still listen to the content without necessarily watching the video, and I found that to be pretty helpful.

Monetizing Your Passion

Just go out there and start recording. The opportunities to generate income are not just through having the channel monetized. Like I told her, “Look, you buy photography equipment. Find out if the companies you buy from have affiliate programs and see if you can join their affiliate program. That way, on your YouTube channel, even if you might not have any subscribers or just a few subscribers, you can still generate revenue by having those affiliate links.”

She didn’t even know that was a thing. I said, “Well, yeah, it’s a thing. You can also do Amazon Associates; it’s free to join. You don’t get as high of a commission rate sometimes, but they have every product you could possibly want to sell because Amazon pretty much sells everything.” I told her to go out and find out if these companies that she buys from have affiliate programs. Then, when she starts her channel, she can put affiliate links in the channel. It doesn’t matter if the channel is monetized or not; she’s able to do that and start generating some income.

Expanding Your Reach

It’s really just adding a feature to what she’s already doing. She’s already creating content with her photography. I just encouraged her to add YouTube to that process so she can show her work, maybe do a how-to, and start generating additional revenue and income off of what she’s already doing.

So, if you’re out there and you’re pondering a change, or you want to do something different, or maybe you just want to give it a try, just do it. Whether you monetize or not, whether you do affiliate links or not, give it a try. See how you like it. The more you do it, the easier it gets and the better you get at it. Don’t let the “I’m not good enough” thought come into your head and discourage you from doing something new. You never know what that something new is going to turn out to be. It might turn out to be the most amazing thing and be a life-changing experience, just like it has been for so many people who’ve gone into YouTube to create content.

You can cross-post to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok if it’s still going to be around—who knows—but there are other platforms where you can take that same content that you have on YouTube and cross-post it to those other platforms. This just gives you a greater audience to show your work to and earn income from.

I’m going to put some links down in the description. One is a course that I actually took from Greg Godfrey, and it was instrumental in me getting started. It really made things simple, clear, and easy to understand, and it gave me a clear path of where to start and the steps to take to get to the end result. He’s been a very successful online entrepreneur, and it really benefited me.

I’ll also put a link to the Amazon Associates page if you want to go check that out and sign up. You can just click that link. The Greg Godfrey link is an affiliate link, so if you do purchase his course from that, I will get a small commission. I appreciate that; it just helps the channel out. The link to the Amazon Associates is just a link for you to go check it out for information.

Listen, if you have any questions or comments, please put them in the comment section. I’d love to hear them, and if you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them the best I can. We can do hard things, so don’t doubt, just do. Go out there, have fun, and enjoy yourself. I really appreciate you guys tuning in. Don’t forget to hit that like and subscribe button, and we’ll catch you all in the next episode. Thanks for watching!