Why we started our youtube channel
In June 2021, we moved across the country from Arizona to Tennessee. It was our first move as adults outside of college.
After the hype of the move wore off, we realized we were feeling really homesick and were missing our friends and family. In late July, we had the urge to start a Youtube channel.
It was (and if we’re being completely honest, still is) terrifying putting ourselves out there, but we did it. We often ask ourselves why anyone would care about us or what we have to say. But at the end of the day, we did this for ourselves.
The reason we started our channel came down to two reasons:
- To have a hobby to do together
- To create a video diary of our lives
That was enough to get us started and keep us going. We’ve always felt a greater purpose but haven’t known what or been able to articulate it well.
Our New Purpose with YouTube
To help others
Six months into our journey, a deeper purpose for our channel has emerged. It took a ton of conversations and asking ourselves the hard questions, like what do we want out of our lives and what do we want our legacy to be? All of our conversations kept coming back to one thing:
Our goal is to help couples strengthen their romantic relationships.
We believe the most important thing we can do in life is love, and if we can help even one person express more love, then we consider that a win!
Connect with friends and family
We’ve been having so much fun exploring our new state and wanted to create an easy and fun way for the people we love to see what we’ve been up to! We of course still call and text our friends and family constantly, BUT, our parents love being able to see what we’re doing, so the YouTube channel has been a great way to share that!
A hobby we do together
We have been saying for years we want to have a hobby together. Besides dance lessons, which we both love, we wanted to work on something that would not only shape ourselves, but others. One day, Melissa suggested we start a Youtube Channel, and I was immediately on board.
We’ve been having so much fun creating content together! It’s been a journey coming up with ideas, outlines, aligning on content, recording (oh my!), editing, and turning it into a final video. Then trying to optimize this process, especially on the days where it just isn’t flowing. We’ve been really exercising our communication skills throughout this whole process!
We wanted to create a video diary so we wouldn’t forget.
A video diary of our lives
The reality of life is that we age and eventually will no longer be here. YouTube allows us to create a visual representation of the best moments of our lives. It’s so cool that we can relive these moments over and over as we go through life. Who knows, maybe one day our kids (or even our grandkids) will be interested in the day we got married. Or maybe we can help a couple learn how to manage their money together even if we’re old and grey. At the end of the day, we wanted to create a video diary so we wouldn’t forget.
It’s awesome to build a library of content and see how we change over time.
YouTube helps us become better people
Storytelling and speaking
We didn’t think of this as we started the YouTube journey, but it has become one of my favorite parts of creating. I draw the parallel to sports; We’d watch “game film” to see how we were positioned and what we could do better the next time we stepped on the field.
This is the same thing.
We get game film to become better at speaking and storytelling. We get to notice weird conversation ticks that we have, like how I would always make extended pauses as I try to search for words when speaking.
Learn new things
Ryan has taken two courses related to this journey since we started: Part Time YouTuber Academy (PTYA) to learn more about what goes into YouTube, and Ship 30 for 30 to become better at writing. His biggest takeaway from both courses is that creating content is just a game of repetition. Create and get feedback. It has removed his need to feel perfect in what he produces. He’s encouraged to continue taking courses to keep learning how to make our content better and better.
Get over fears
A lot of fears exist when it comes to creating social content. The largest is fear of judgment. Creating content helps us face our fears and just put ourselves out there. At the end of the day, we enter the world with good intentions and are just looking to express our love. With that comes conquering our fears. Or at least learning how to coexist with them.
What a journey the last six months have been. We’re so happy we decided to embark on this journey and love the way it is forcing us to grow. We would highly recommend any couple find a hobby and create together. You never know the magic that you’ll create.
We’ll see you in the next journal!
Ta ta
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