Where Do We Go From Here?

In April of 2014, I decided to start uploading weekly videos - sometimes going beyond that, pushing myself, making sure to continue to try to get better at the craft of making videos with every post. In the beginning my content was absolutely terrible, but I fell in love with the process of creating content. In that time, I've amassed a fanbase that I can easily call the greatest group of people on the Internet. It is that unwavering support that has made it possible for me to make something of this YouTube endeavor. 

My First YouTube Video 😅

As soon as I made this video and posted it I fell in love with making something that could potentially help someone with something, most importantly a purchase decision. As we all know, many of us work extremely hard for our money and when it comes time to buy something of significance, we want to do our due diligence to make sure we're spending wisely. It is that research process people go through that I hope to be a part of. I hope to be of help to people in that way and I still think of that to this date when I'm making my videos.

A little more than a year after my decision to try and push YouTube to something more lucrative, I reached a huge milestone. I was able to surpass 5,000 subscribers. This was largely in part of the support of some great guys (JBTech17, Armando Ferreira, and SnazzyQ). After this, I got really hungry for growth and to be honest with you my focus changed a bit. The support from my new audience began to grow stronger and I found myself really loving them, the YouTube community, and most importantly the creation process became my new addiction.

Over the next year, I found my groove and making videos was something I looked forward to every single week. I friggin' loved (and still do) every part of the creative process. I wanted to take my new influence capabilities and try and use it for good. That's when I thought it would be good to try and inspire my audience to donate to organizations I was passionate about personally.

After many successful donation drives to these organizations, my addiction got even stronger! I got really excited about the idea of growing more to try and inspire more to help; even if it wasn't to an organization I was pushing for, I hoped to inspire the best in people. Thankfully I had some awesome friends help me get this thing off the ground and it was a smashing success.

Things were good, I lined up my goals for the channel and I started to work toward meeting or exceeding those goals. I kept working hard at my 9 to 5 job, worked so hard that I worked myself into a promotion with more responsibility. Friday's would hit and I'd pull all-nighters to get my next video shot, edited, and prepared for posting. In that time, my sons continued to grow and their need for attention also grew. Even with that I kept chipping away and burning the candle at both ends. That wasn't nothing new to me, I remember the very long days and nights during my time in Iraq - so staying up all night to do something I loved was no big deal at all, I felt blessed to be able sit safely in my home editing something awesome!

⬆️ the very first video I ever edited ⬆️

My addiction for making video grew, as the process of making videos was just so damn fun and it still is. Additionally, my hunger for new gear grew too. It's a slippery slope when you start buying gear that you "NEED" for making YouTube videos. In reality, you only need a smartphone that shoots decent HD video and a simple editing software to make great content on YouTube. It really boils down to having a great personality on video. I know I have a really polarizing personality and it's amplified by a 100 times with me on video, I can attribute that to the time I spent in the Marine Corps. I think this is one of the primary reasons I haven't been able to grow to the levels I have aspired to. It's just my personality, some love it and some hate it. I will say that almost everyone I've ever met in person, usually likes me. I get along with almost everyone really well and end up becoming friends if we spend enough time together.

⬇️ someone uploaded a video of me on LiveLeak ⬇️

Time is still pushing forward and the support for my content is amazing. I can't thank y'all enough. Without your support, the stuff I make means nothing. I continue to grow very slowly and my content has been consistent, but it's time I need a break. The return on my investment (ROI) just hasn't been there for this endeavor, and that's part of the risk I decided to take when I started making content. So I really need to sit back and reevaluate if and how I move forward.

Subsriber Growth

View Growth

After a long time deliberating if I would close up shop, I've decided I can't quit now - especially since I've invested so much energy, money, and time into YouTube. I just need some time to regroup and analyze my goals further. Maybe the answer is pursing video opportunities outside of YouTube - I don't know just yet. With time being so limited in my life as of late, I really need to think about how I am going to go forward from here.

I can't continue to push myself beyond my limitations as I've been doing for the past three years. I need it to pay off if I'm going to push this hard. This year has been especially difficult, and I think it stared with how much work I put in during CES. I had a friggin' blast covering the show, but I swear to you this was one of the toughest things I've done in awhile.

Ultimately this is my letter to you, my supporters, as without you I'm not even debating how I move forward from something you give me the ability to do with your share, like, tweet, comment, and view. I thank each and every one of you for everything. There's no way you can know how much your support means to me and I sincerely appreciate it.

Until the next one, Tomas