0:01 hello there and welcome back to the
0:03 closet historian and back to my series
0:04 side hustling these are the videos where
0:06 I talk a little bit more about myself
0:08 how I'm doing how my business Endeavors
0:10 are doing if we can count YouTube as a
0:12 business which it is my full-time job
0:14 now so I suppose it is my business as
0:15 well but I'll talk a little bit more
0:17 about my career stuff kind of at the end
0:18 of the video uh first I want to go over
0:21 my goals from 2022 and talk about how I
0:23 did on those because it should go
0:25 pretty quick I do have some notes here
0:28 um so some of my goals for 2022 were to
0:30 take weekends I did manage to do this a
0:32 little bit this last year
0:34 um to like actually just plan work only
0:36 on the weekdays and then leave weekends
0:38 empty and fill those with like
0:40 off-camera sewing projects or crafting
0:43 projects or playing video games seeing
0:45 friends doing things like laundry
0:47 um that were not related to work because
0:49 mostly I work at least a little bit
0:50 every day and don't ever take like
0:52 actual full weekend days it's pretty
0:54 rare that I do maybe one or two a month
0:57 if that so I was going to try and learn
1:00 to take weekends this last year I did uh
1:02 okay I dipped my toe in the water of
1:03 taking weekends and now I need to learn
1:05 to properly swim then I wanted to do a
1:08 sort of semi-no buy or at least a low
1:10 buy and not to buy any fabric so
1:12 so
1:14 yeah I also wanted to take like a real
1:16 vacation or break like a couple days or
1:19 a small trip or vacation of some kind
1:21 where I didn't do any work of any kind
1:24 on that and I guess I went to Moab with
1:25 my parents which was another gold mine
1:27 to go back to Moab I went for a weekend
1:30 and I took my parents to show the Moab
1:33 um which was like a no work trip but I
1:34 was still kind of on because I was
1:36 showing Moab to my parents and I was
1:37 staying with my parents all the time so
1:39 um it wasn't very much like the relaxing
1:41 kind of like really tune-out kind of
1:43 vacation I meant by this goal to take a
1:45 couple days off
1:46 um so hopefully I'll be able to achieve
1:48 that some other time a goal that I had
1:49 from last year that did manage to get
1:51 done but not so much due to my efforts
1:53 is I wanted to upgrade my PC and what
1:57 happened here was and warning uh very privileged
1:59 privileged
2:02 child situation coming up here um I
2:04 complained about my computer crashing
2:06 and freaking out while I was trying to
2:08 render the Motion Graphics from the
2:09 shine lookbook video I had all these
2:12 like motion title graphics and each one
2:13 of those Graphics took around a half hour
2:14 hour
2:17 um if not a little bit longer to render
2:19 the graphic and it would crash several
2:22 times so obviously doing any Motion
2:23 Graphics on my old computer for some
2:25 reason was just not happening so I
2:27 complained enough that my dad surprised
2:29 me with a new pc
2:32 um he just he just went online secretly
2:33 figured out what he thought I would need
2:36 and then just had it delivered
2:39 um so that was a huge surprise and
2:40 present and gift which that would have
2:42 been rather a large business expense I
2:43 would have had this last year if I did
2:46 update my uh PC but I was just very
2:49 lucky and my dad gifted me one which is
2:50 not the case for so many people out
2:52 there not a lot of people have people in
2:54 their life who can or would do something
2:57 like that and so I feel very lucky to
2:59 have a new pc thanks to my dad and as a
3:00 reward I made him walk around Arches
3:02 National Park a bit now my biggest goal
3:04 for 2022
3:06 was to write more and to finish the
3:08 third book in the series I've been
3:10 working on for several years since 2018.
3:13 that book is not done I have about 75
3:15 000 words of it I don't know how many
3:16 more that is from the year before I
3:18 would have to check
3:19 um I don't think I wrote a ton of new
3:21 stuff for that this last year because I
3:22 didn't make a lot of time for writing I
3:26 was watching my old recap of 2021
3:28 um where I said what I was essentially
3:29 about to say to you for this video which
3:31 was that like I did pretty well at
3:33 keeping my writing time the first half
3:35 of the year and then uh since summer I
3:36 haven't had made any dedicated time to
3:38 do it which is basically exactly what I
3:41 did here in 2022 as well so
3:42 um I did pretty well in maintaining my
3:43 writing time at the beginning half of
3:45 the Year taking my writing breaks like I
3:46 wanted to my little like writing
3:48 sabbaticals that I take and then the
3:50 second half of the year after summer I
3:53 was a little bit behind and then when it
3:55 started working on my fall stuff I got
3:57 way behind mostly because of doing the
3:59 mandragora jacket project because that
4:01 took weeks longer than
4:04 um that I had scheduled to do a project
4:06 for September so that put me behind
4:07 making that like kind of Couture beaded
4:09 jacket which I'm really glad I made that
4:10 jacket I really like it it was a
4:12 creative Endeavor in itself but also did
4:13 cut into lots of other things and push
4:15 lots of things back and so it pushed my
4:16 false sewing back
4:18 and then I got coven which I'll talk
4:19 about in a minute
4:21 um so I just got really scheduled all
4:24 out of whack and the third book this is
4:25 all the way of saying the third book did
4:27 not get done this year but again I will
4:28 talk about writing more
4:31 shortly but my other silly goal was to
4:35 try and get a new tattoo and I I am
4:37 I got more than one new tattoo this year
4:40 I got two new tattoos and one of them as
4:42 you can see is on the large side so
4:44 looking at this last year and what went
4:46 well and what didn't go well what goals
4:48 I was managed I managed to hit and which
4:49 ones I did not so my scheduling still
4:52 got out of hand in 2022 and that was
4:53 also partially two and something else on
4:56 my list of bummers which was that I I
4:58 got covered in October
5:00 um it wasn't I mean obviously I wasn't
5:02 hospitalized I was home I was fine I
5:04 recovered okay I don't think I have any
5:06 long-term covered symptoms but like
5:07 knock on wood because I know that they
5:09 can show up later and stuff
5:10 um I did have a lingering cough for
5:12 about a month if not a little bit longer
5:14 but I did have covered in October which
5:16 is like my favorite month and full of
5:18 lots of projects for me usually I had to
5:19 scrap a costuming project I was planning
5:21 on doing here on the channel I had all
5:23 the materials ready I just the week that
5:25 I was in bed for covid I was in bed for
5:27 like solidly eight days I was isolating
5:29 of course from my parents because I
5:30 didn't want them to get sick I did give
5:33 covet to my younger brother but my
5:35 parents didn't get it so that was really
5:38 good that they were fine had were able
5:40 to like Drop food off in the hallway for
5:42 us because we were not well it was kind
5:45 of just miserable so uh I now need to
5:47 get a new booster soon but like I had to
5:48 wait a little while because I was still
5:50 recovering from covet and so now I need
5:52 to get a new booster before I go on a
5:53 trip this next year so I need to
5:57 schedule my vaccination situation out
5:59 because I'm not doing that again that's
6:02 right no no thank you and then trigger
6:04 warning for pet loss
6:06 um just skip to this minute if you don't
6:08 want to hear me talk about it because
6:11 fair enough but we did lose our cat
6:13 gunny this last year
6:16 um this big fluffer lovely boy here
6:18 um he was 16 years old just like well I
6:20 guess almost 17 years old just like my
6:21 Clio because they were from the same
6:23 litter although they didn't look very
6:26 much alike I lost Clio in September or
6:29 September or October of 2021 and then we
6:33 lost our gunny in this last spring he
6:36 um was frail and old older and like not
6:37 taking care of himself he's a
6:39 long-haired cat too and he didn't like
6:40 to be brushed anymore so we didn't like
6:41 to torture him with it too much but then
6:43 he would get mats because he's a long
6:45 fluffer guy or he was
6:48 um so he wasn't like doing 100 but he
6:50 seemed okay and then he decided to stop eating
6:51 eating
6:53 um and as you know with animals this is
6:55 not a good sign so we I took him to the
6:57 vet my parents were going out of town so
6:59 it was kind of suddenly I didn't know
7:00 the cap the cat was fine and then the
7:02 cat wasn't Vine and then I was on my own
7:03 trying to deal with it all so I took the
7:05 cat to the vet he had a heart murmur
7:07 they didn't want to do the kind of like
7:09 rehydration and IV kind of stuff that
7:11 they sometimes can do when you have a
7:13 cat um animal that hasn't been eating
7:15 and drinking
7:16 um it's probably some sort of advanced
7:18 kidney problem again just like we had
7:20 with our Clio cats are pretty prone to
7:24 kidney problems so that's a risk
7:26 um and he just they they would let me
7:27 know that he wasn't doing well and I
7:29 could see that much and he had kind of
7:30 decided to stop eating so they gave him
7:32 like something to increase his appetite
7:33 and it didn't work he had just stopped
7:35 eating so I had to make the call all
7:37 pretty much on my own I mean like in
7:38 consultation with my parents and my
7:40 family but
7:42 um they were like you're there
7:45 make the call so I had to call someone
7:48 to come out and help us put him down I
7:50 say us but it was actually just me that
7:51 morning with him and I hadn't slept much
7:54 the night before so
7:56 but he was obvious that he was
7:57 struggling a lot and it was hard to see
7:59 you know this little fluffy innocent
8:00 creature that you love so much in so
8:03 much pain so I would have done it sooner
8:04 if I could have gotten an appointment
8:07 sooner to have him um eased out of that
8:09 I would have because it was obvious that
8:10 he wasn't himself and he wasn't feeling
8:11 good so
8:14 um I dealt with that in Spring which
8:16 wasn't great obviously emotionally to
8:18 lose a little friend like that and to do
8:20 that kind of in it almost like
8:22 semi-traumatic way all on my own because
8:23 of my family being out of town and
8:25 things being kind of whack uh wasn't
8:28 awesome so I can now uh securely
8:31 recommend not being home to lose the pet
8:33 and being there with the pet and also
8:35 not recommend not being there so really
8:38 they both suck turns out so that's
8:40 the verdict on that one and then the
8:42 other sort of missed opportunity or not
8:45 failure but not success either uh I
8:47 guess two other people would sound like
8:48 a success if you watch my everything I
8:50 made in 2022 video
8:53 it looks like like a success I made
8:56 over 80 items of like wearable garments
8:59 clothing in 2022 which is twice what I
9:01 want to ever do in a year like if I
9:03 could somehow cap it at like 40 Projects
9:05 a year that would be great
9:07 um my numbers did get bumped up by knit
9:09 projects because knit skirts and little
9:11 tops like this actually I didn't make
9:12 this one
9:14 um are very fast to make so I can make
9:15 more than one in one day which bumped up
9:17 my numbers a little bit this last year
9:18 because I made so many of those stretch
9:20 skirts but in general
9:23 I sewed too much I went to school for
9:24 fashion design I wanted to be a fashion
9:27 designer since I was 15 14 15 16 years
9:29 old I love designing clothes I love
9:30 playing with Fabrics I love mixing
9:32 textures and colors and playing with it
9:33 I don't make clothes because I need
9:36 clothes uh I feel like it's important to
9:38 say like no one needs to make no one
9:41 needs 80 garments in general let alone
9:43 80 garments a year I make clothes
9:45 because I have like this fuel or desire
9:46 to design and make clothes like I like
9:49 doing it so for me it's like painting or
9:52 any other creative thing like I enjoy it
9:54 in addition to enjoy wearing the things
9:56 I enjoy making things as well so but
9:58 it's too much
10:01 along with my other stuff I mean I sew
10:03 for work for videos for demonstrations
10:05 not only here but also an additional
10:08 project over on patreon every month so I
10:09 end up making a lot of things just for
10:10 work and then there are things where I'm
10:12 like oh I would like something like this
10:14 to match with this to do for a lookbook
10:16 so I make additional things for my
10:17 lookbooks because I like putting
10:19 collections together as well and that's
10:21 how a lot of additional garments get
10:23 made um to kind of fill out Collections
10:26 and uh like put together an entire
10:29 Vision or a theme that I have in my head
10:30 and more stuff gets made that way as
10:33 well sewing for me is both my work and a
10:36 hobby and also kind of a creative Outlet
10:39 so between the three of those factors I
10:41 get a lot of sewing done but it is too
10:42 much I almost have to like
10:45 I just have to hold myself back like I
10:46 have to
10:49 in my scheduling make it so that it's
10:52 not possible to fill with more sewing
10:54 projects because I will I have so many
10:56 ideas way more ideas than I ever have
10:57 done I actually do have that question
10:58 sometimes I get that question actually
11:01 quite often anymore is like why haven't
11:03 you replicated a costume or done cosplay
11:05 of something like from a film or
11:06 anything like that
11:09 um like replicate things directly or do
11:10 you take like design submissions and
11:13 it's like I have more of my own ideas
11:16 than I will ever have time to do so and
11:17 I'd rather get to those so I don't
11:20 really feel any desire to replicate
11:23 anything that isn't my own there's my
11:24 brain is already overflowing you know I
11:26 don't need any more
11:28 the ideas are fine the ideas are not the
11:30 problem the time is the problem so yes
11:32 tying back into scheduling I sewed too
11:34 much this last year like I'm really
11:36 happy with everything I'm really happy
11:37 to have I think I made some really
11:38 awesome garments this last year I'm
11:40 super excited about wearing them in the
11:42 future I plan to keep them
11:44 for as long as they fit me and I'm
11:46 excited to make I'm looking at a big
11:47 pile of fabric over here because I'm
11:48 excited to start working on all this
11:49 stuff that I have going on for this year
11:51 as well I just
11:53 must balance it better so I'm really
11:56 trying to like I I plan like behind the
12:00 scenes side hustlingness here I plan to
12:01 hopefully only do
12:04 three projects a month as like a base
12:05 and then maybe like one hobby project
12:07 and that should give me some better
12:09 totals and numbers for this next year
12:11 but I'll talk about goals for 2023 in my
12:13 next video but then let's talk about
12:16 some of my wins and random good things
12:18 that happened this year uh first being
12:20 finding a tattoo artist that I like who
12:22 also has availability finding someone
12:26 who has talent is a nice person and has
12:28 availability is like the golden weird
12:29 triangle of trying to find a tattoo
12:31 artist if you are a person like me who
12:33 happens to like tattoos a lot of the
12:36 greats are very very booked it's not
12:38 even uh you know the cost thing a lot of
12:41 really good artists are can charge a lot
12:42 for their time and it makes sense
12:44 because they've perfected an art
12:46 um and they're in high demand so you know
12:47 know
12:50 good for them but I managed to find
12:52 someone who is a newer tattoo artist
12:53 they are in their second year of
12:55 tattooing now and she is amazing her
12:57 name is Kayla I will link to her
12:59 Instagram below if you also want to book
13:00 time with her although don't book her
13:01 too much because that's
13:04 my job and yes I saw Kayla post this
13:07 design that I now have here on the back
13:09 of my forearm I guess is that a forearm
13:10 yeah forearm
13:12 um and she posted this design as a
13:14 pre-drawn on her Instagram and said that
13:16 it was up for grabs and I've always
13:17 wanted leaves back here for whatever
13:20 reason so I saw leaves with spooky
13:22 spider webs and a spider and I thought
13:24 now is the time go go so I emailed her
13:25 immediately I was actually in the middle
13:27 of filming the Hat video from earlier in
13:30 the year this video
13:31 um and I was in the middle of that video
13:32 and I needed to wait for my battery to
13:34 charge and people to stop being so loud
13:36 in the house so I like ran emailed her
13:38 trying to see if I could NAB this design
13:41 and it worked so I was able to get an
13:43 appointment with her and I got this
13:45 lovely buddy on my arm here and I love
13:48 the way my spider like dips when my hand
13:50 does I like the little
13:52 buddy coming onto me I kind of want more
13:54 stuff on my hand now
13:56 don't tell my mom and then I have a
13:58 couple pictures I could probably put in
14:01 here uh when I finished writing my
14:03 second novel
14:04 um which of course none of these are
14:06 published that always is a question if
14:07 you haven't seen the rest of this series
14:09 watch the rest of sign hustling to find
14:12 out my thoughts about publishing
14:13 um still unpublished but I finished my
14:15 second book I was feeling very happy
14:17 about that and I bought this is back in
14:19 2019. yeah and I bought myself some
14:20 flowers at the grocery store and there
14:21 were two chrysanthemums as part of that
14:22 bouquet chrysanthemums are very
14:24 auspicious flower in a lot of cultures
14:27 and then also our fall flower and my
14:30 favorite flower and I decided that
14:31 because it was the second book and I had
14:33 had these two chrysanthemums that I took
14:34 pictures of as kind of a celebration of
14:36 finishing that book that I wanted to
14:39 chrysanthemums and now I have two
14:41 chrysanthemums because after getting
14:42 this tattoo and loving it so much and
14:44 loving meeting Kayla I knew I wanted to
14:46 work with her further and so I asked if
14:47 she could give me two spooky
14:49 chrysanthemums and so now here they are
14:51 I can put in a picture from her
14:52 Instagram that she took the day they
14:55 were done but here are my slightly
14:57 spooky spider webbed chrysanthemums that
14:59 I'm super super happy with obviously
15:02 this is a massive tattoo I'm now as she
15:03 said you're leaving here a much more
15:05 tattooed person than you came in and
15:07 that is correct so
15:09 um but I've always loved tattoos and
15:11 I've kind of always
15:14 my parents don't like them my mom hates
15:16 tattoos she's gotten better about it but
15:18 she still is not a big fan so all my
15:19 life I've grown up with this like you're
15:21 not allowed to have them kind of a thing
15:26 and you know I'm 31 now and uh there's
15:28 also this like oh vintage girls can't
15:30 have tattoos like it's trashy
15:33 um or like it's not uh authentic as if I
15:35 am somehow authentically a 1940s person
15:37 ever which is not the case and so
15:39 there's like all this like stigma around
15:42 having tattoos for me
15:44 um and I kind of now that I'm 31 we've
15:46 been through a plague and I've waited a
15:48 long time for certain things aspects of
15:51 my life to start I
15:53 screw it you know like I'm gonna do do
15:56 what I want with my own body especially
15:58 after some of the things that have
15:59 happened in the United States
16:01 where people don't think that I should
16:04 have rights to my entire body I guess it
16:06 there's something empowering and feels
16:08 good about doing what I want with my own
16:11 freaking skin that I get to keep forever
16:13 um and yes it was an investment to get
16:14 these tattoos this year
16:16 um it's not cheap to get
16:19 tattoos but I plan on keeping my left
16:21 arm for a very long time so I always say
16:25 cost per wear very low so yes I did
16:27 manage to find a tattoo artist that I
16:29 love working with and I'm really excited
16:31 to do a couple more things I think you
16:33 know the inside of this although that's
16:35 going to hurt needs let's just face it
16:38 we're filling in this arm probably you know
16:39 know
16:40 just how it is if you don't like tattoos
16:43 if you don't like my tattoos that's fine
16:45 just maybe keep it to yourself because like
16:46 like
16:47 I can't do anything about it now I like
16:49 them and then yes back to kittens we did
16:51 adopt we can't live in a countless house
16:54 the people me and my family we all love
16:57 cats way too much uh we're big cat
16:58 lovers in this house I love them
17:01 so much so we decided about I think it
17:03 was maybe a month or so after losing
17:05 gunny that our house was just too quiet
17:06 like we had to like take all the cat
17:09 stuff away and it just felt weird we've
17:10 never lived in this house without our
17:13 cats so to have them gone and then have
17:15 there just be no cats like you can be sad
17:16 sad
17:18 and have no cats or you can be sad and
17:19 there are just kittens there and like
17:21 rather be sad with kittens that's just
17:24 better so we decided to get kittens my
17:27 mom prefers to get kittens these are
17:29 technically my family's cats I might
17:31 kidnap them but currently and
17:33 technically they are my family's cats my
17:36 parents cats um through a rescue we went
17:38 to go visit two kittens that were with
17:40 the Foster family so we went and we
17:42 visited our little orange buddy and um
17:45 my little Sophia who is our Tour de that
17:47 we have now and they had a third kitten
17:48 at that foster home that was from a
17:49 different litter
17:53 who's Ollie and um we he has a very cute
17:57 meow he goes he like rolls his r's he's
18:00 exceedingly cute accent I guess for a cat
18:00 cat
18:02 um and so he was making this little
18:04 ringing sound so me and my mom went to
18:06 go get uh pick up two kittens and we
18:09 came home with three which always a good
18:11 day in my book excellent um I did put a
18:13 video up of them when they were kittens
18:14 and we just got them so if you want to
18:15 see our kittens back when they were very
18:17 small check it out but if you want to
18:19 see them any other time I'm constantly
18:20 putting them on Instagram because I love
18:21 them so much and they hang out with me
18:23 all the time and I love
18:25 cuddling with them and Ollie is actually
18:26 obsessed with me and therefore I'm
18:28 obsessed with him he's my I don't know
18:30 what is with me and silver tabbings but
18:31 we just I had my Cleo and now I have my Ollie
18:33 Ollie
18:34 um that was like my one request when we
18:36 were getting kittens is to like not have
18:38 a silver tabby or a gray one because we
18:40 just lost those
18:42 um and just like having a I don't know
18:43 out of the corner of my eye I just
18:44 wanted them to look different
18:47 um but then we ended up grabbing Ollie
18:49 while we were at the Foster and he's a
18:50 silver buddy but he's I think something
18:52 about him being a boy instead of a girl
18:54 like makes it easier for me I don't know
18:56 why so he's my little buddy boy and he
18:59 is such a cuddle bug with me like two or
19:00 three times a day he has to be like on
19:02 my chest up nuzzled under my neck he
19:04 like wants to push his face against my
19:06 face and just like be super close to me
19:08 and he'll climb on my back and stuff
19:12 he's my little buddy now so that's nice
19:14 to have and then our torty girl Sophia she
19:16 she
19:18 um now likes to cuddle usually in the
19:18 morning and then also in the evening
19:20 she'll just come and like settle like
19:22 right here like in my in the nook of my
19:24 arm if I'm like laying in my bed or
19:25 something she'll come and hang out with
19:27 me and fall asleep and she's super soft
19:29 and she likes to sit in my sink as well
19:32 so kittens great I also love our orange
19:35 boys and he is just his name is Xander
19:37 sorry I call him zanzan and pumpkin
19:38 because he's Orange
19:39 um he's our biggest
19:42 buddy so far he's a big orange kitty but
19:44 he is kind of a loner so far so he likes
19:46 to like hide under the bed for most of
19:48 the day and if you find him or if you
19:49 see him and you start petting him he's
19:51 like happy to be petted and he purrs and
19:52 he's like way into it but he just
19:54 doesn't really get it yet so hopefully
19:56 he will chill out a little bit more um
19:58 he's still a little bit nervous and
20:00 still likes to hide but we have hope
20:03 because he is he's a very loud purr and
20:04 he likes to talk to us and walk around I
20:06 just feel like he hasn't totally gotten
20:08 it yet so hopefully we'll get there and
20:10 then a personal finance sort of goal
20:12 that I had last year was to save money
20:15 for a house and I was able to save about
20:18 I want to say like two-thirds maybe like
20:22 just up to two-thirds of a down payment
20:24 for the kind of house that I can afford
20:26 which is
20:29 not spectacular but I'm looking at you
20:32 know slightly uh need some updating
20:34 houses fixer-uppers I guess yes what
20:37 they're called fixer-uppers in the north
20:39 east area
20:40 I'm not really picked about which state
20:42 New Jersey New York Connecticut
20:43 Massachusetts these are the main ones
20:45 I'm looking at
20:48 um but I'm looking for a great house in
20:50 an okay neighborhood not necessarily
20:52 looking because of the place all those
20:54 places seem quite compacted together to
20:55 me I feel like you can hop on a train or
20:57 you can drive to Boston for the weekend
20:59 or whatever so I'm looking for the right
21:02 house less than the right State I don't
21:04 really care what state I live in as long
21:05 as it's
21:08 relatively blue because I would like to
21:10 feel slightly safe but I do have you
21:12 know a good portion of the down payment
21:14 that I want to have saved and I will
21:15 continue to keep saving because this
21:18 next year I'm going to be looking to
21:21 move and buy a house so we'll see how
21:23 that goes and then the biggest like goal
21:26 hit or um like achievement for me for
21:28 this last year it would be impossible
21:30 for this not to be it honestly is that
21:33 this channel hit 100 000 subscribers a
21:34 few days before Christmas so it was
21:36 quite the Christmas present to me thank
21:37 you all of you and I have been making
21:40 videos for several years now it's I've
21:42 been a slow process to get to this point
21:44 it definitely is something that becomes
21:47 like exponential like once you have 1000
21:49 it's easier to get to five thousand five
21:50 thousand it's a little bit faster you
21:54 get to 10 10 50 50 to here
21:56 um I you know initially I wanted things
21:58 fast I wanted to be here a couple years
21:59 ago because I wanted this to be my
22:01 full-time job a couple years ago and
22:03 this has been my full-time job since I
22:06 think it was 2019 no 2020 early 2020 is
22:09 when I was like completely went full
22:11 time on YouTube and
22:14 patreon I open my patreon and I had no idea
22:15 idea
22:17 if that would work I was very afraid
22:20 that I was going to have to get another
22:21 part-time job because I had left a
22:24 different part-time job that fall
22:26 um I've had a lot of part-time jobs
22:28 since College where I was working for a
22:29 small like kind of family-ish business
22:32 where they expected a lot out of me and
22:34 like expected me to invest a lot in this
22:36 hustle this dream that they had when
22:38 it's like I had my own dreams that I
22:40 would like to be spending my time on and
22:42 so I kind of made the decision
22:45 in 2019 that I couldn't have one foot in each
22:46 each
22:49 you know boat anymore and I wanted to
22:52 just dive in on my own Endeavors as much
22:53 as possible
22:55 um of again that's only possible because
22:57 I had this support system here like I
22:59 live here in this house for free
23:00 um which meant that if it failed I still
23:02 had somewhere to live
23:04 um so that's not the privilege that
23:06 everyone has and I want to recognize
23:08 that because I was you know this has
23:10 been a lot easier Journey for me because
23:13 of the Privileges of having a dad who
23:15 will randomly buy me a computer having a
23:17 place where I can live have rent and
23:19 food taken care of so I don't have to
23:21 worry about that side of it like
23:23 obviously I'm still worried and do worry
23:25 about this disappearing about it going
23:27 away about not having a livelihood
23:28 because it's not like you know you can't
23:30 just like go and be like hi I haven't
23:32 worked for five years but I've been a
23:33 YouTuber that time and now I'm not
23:35 please hire me
23:38 does it is scary but I have to
23:40 acknowledge the amount of
23:43 like luck and uh like institutional and
23:46 also just Personal Privilege I've had in
23:48 being able to get to this point
23:51 um and then I've been exceedingly lucky
23:53 um to have the amount of patronage that
23:56 I have had patreon has changed my life
23:59 and is the reason this can be my job and
24:01 can can continue to be my job it can
24:03 continue to it's not easy to say is
24:05 because of patreon because with a
24:06 hundred thousand like behind the scenes
24:08 with a hundred thousand subscribers I
24:09 make around a thousand dollars a month
24:12 here on YouTube which is a lot of money
24:14 um it would not cover half of rent in
24:16 the place that I live so I could never
24:18 afford to like move out of this house it
24:21 is not like a livable income for most
24:25 people uh you know obviously 12 14 12 to
24:28 14 000 a year is not a livable income it
24:30 should be what the base income is but
24:32 I won't stand on my socialist soapbox
24:34 and that is just YouTube Revenue with
24:36 the ads that they show before my videos
24:40 and the um like YouTube premium cut that
24:41 I get from when people who have YouTube
24:43 Red watch my video as well um which is
24:44 usually a little bit higher than an ad
24:46 rate would be and I don't have a ton of
24:48 ads turned on on my channel you can turn
24:50 on like different types of ads and I
24:52 just have pre-roll ads I don't have any
24:54 ads in the middle of my videos because I
24:56 figure gosh if you sat through an ad to
24:57 be at the start like we're good like
25:00 we're more than even so I don't do any
25:01 like mid-roll ads even though sometimes
25:04 I do do longer videos and I think that's
25:05 like probably
25:08 uh like my my brother for example who
25:11 knows a lot about uh online video
25:12 um and like streaming stuff like that
25:14 thinks that that's a bit crazy to not
25:17 have any AD breaks but I just you know
25:19 sometimes my videos have trended a
25:21 little bit shorter actually so it hasn't
25:22 been as
25:25 um much of a huge block of time that I'm
25:26 taking that I could be putting ads in
25:28 that I'm not but I just don't want to
25:29 have advertising in the middle of my
25:31 video in any way which means I also
25:33 don't work with sponsors which is the
25:35 other way a lot of YouTubers make a
25:37 living out of doing this is by taking on
25:39 um like private sponsorships private
25:41 deals with individual sponsors to have a
25:43 segment of the video where they talk
25:45 about that product or whatever
25:47 product or service and I don't do those
25:49 and I don't want to have to and the
25:51 reason I don't have to do that is
25:53 because of patreon I I'm sponsored by my
25:55 patrons instead of buying various
25:57 companies who want me to sell you things
25:59 like I could be making more money if I
26:00 took those bunch of deals if I turned on
26:03 more ads but that's not something that
26:05 interests me I'd rather just like live
26:06 at the level like I don't need to live
26:08 in any level more than I'm accustomed to
26:11 and I have just finally
26:12 reached this level here on my channel
26:15 where I feel secure enough in this as my
26:17 job between the channel reaching 100 000
26:19 subscribers which feels a little bit
26:20 more stable somehow even though like I
26:23 still only get 10 000 views per video so
26:25 it's not like that translates to videos
26:27 going viral or doing really super well
26:29 particularly and it's the views that
26:31 mean that people watched ads that mean
26:33 you get money so I don't get any like
26:35 extra monetary there's no monetary
26:36 incentive to have a higher subscriber
26:37 number it just makes me feel a little
26:39 bit more legit because Google's gonna
26:41 send me like a plaque to put in the
26:44 background yeah but I for the first time
26:46 in my life feel like I have a secure job
26:48 and it's working for my own small
26:50 business instead of somebody else's but again
26:51 again
26:53 I've only gotten here because of so much
26:56 help along the way including my family
26:59 and also the world I live in and of
27:01 course all of you who are my patrons all
27:03 of you who watch these videos as well
27:04 especially these side hustling videos
27:06 especially to the end of a long rambly
27:08 side hustling videos you're the reason I
27:09 can keep doing this you're the reason
27:12 that I can keep sewing and working on
27:14 any idea that I want to
27:15 um and put those things and put that
27:18 creativity here online and share as much
27:19 as I can about how I make the things I
27:22 do with all of you um I want to continue
27:24 to do that and the only reason I can is
27:26 because of your help
27:28 um and watching the videos and leaving
27:30 me comments and for some of you going
27:31 over and supporting me on patreon as
27:33 well um I do have over a thousand
27:35 patrons now which would be like even
27:36 more of a goal than having a hundred
27:38 thousand subscribers is having a
27:39 thousand people who want to support me
27:41 and my work and see me continue doing it
27:44 it means everything to me to know that
27:45 there's that base of people who want to
27:47 see what I'm doing
27:49 um so thank you you know there's no way
27:51 there's no real way to put it into words
27:55 how like lucky I feel and you know to
27:56 the next hundred I don't really want
27:58 another 100 000 subscribers
28:01 um I would like my videos uh to have a
28:02 little bit higher view numbers just
28:04 because I put a lot of work into them so
28:06 I feel like I would rather grow my watch
28:08 numbers as opposed to my subscriber numbers
28:09 numbers
28:11 um because that about the ratio between
28:13 the subscribers and the like amount of
28:16 views I actually get per video is so
28:18 wildly different which is for most
28:20 people like most people do not have like
28:21 if they have the same amount of Watchers
28:24 every video as they do subscribers that
28:26 would be amazing for everyone's bottom
28:27 line that's for sure
28:29 um and for confidence levels but I would
28:31 rather I would like to you know if
28:32 there's anything on the channel numbers
28:34 wise that I have a goal for anymore it
28:37 is to bump up the watch numbers so make
28:39 I guess more content that people want to
28:43 see but I do because of my uh patrons
28:44 and because of those of you who have
28:46 supported me for so long and are so like
28:49 loyal to my work I I feel like I can
28:51 really just do what I want to do most
28:53 and what I would love to make and see in
28:55 the world as opposed to have to cater my
28:56 content to what I think the internet
28:59 wants to see and I think weirdly enough
29:00 the things that I'm most passionate
29:03 about tend to do better anyway so I do
29:05 try and lean into that so I would like
29:07 to grow my watch numbers on each video
29:09 but not to the point where I'm going to
29:12 sacrifice doing what I want to do most
29:14 if that makes any sense so it's kind of
29:15 like I'm just gonna keep doing what I
29:17 love and hope for the best as opposed to
29:19 change anything about my content to make
29:21 it more internet friendly although I do
29:22 think my content is getting better like
29:23 if you go back and watch my old videos
29:26 please don't uh because I think things
29:27 have improved quite a lot over the years
29:30 but thank you so much for listening to
29:33 me go over my 2022 as you can see things
29:35 are still kind of a miasma of nonsense
29:37 up in my brain I haven't really fully
29:38 contextualized everything that happened
29:39 last year
29:41 um the good and the bad I guess I
29:42 haven't really made time for that I've
29:44 just been trying to kind of rest up like
29:46 physically almost been chilling a little
29:48 bit after getting a lot of work done to
29:50 get synapse done
29:52 um and like put all that content
29:53 together I kind of needed a break so
29:55 I've just been kind of
29:58 relaxing and refreshing a little bit I
30:00 have sewn some things over my break here
30:02 because no one's surprised I can't stop
30:03 sewing so I've made some hobby things
30:05 off camera that you'll be seeing in
30:07 lookbooks coming up because I do have
30:09 lots of ideas for this next year I need
30:11 to balance things and slow things behind
30:12 the scenes but hopefully you won't
30:14 notice that much of a change here on the
30:16 channel because no matter how fast my
30:17 wheels are spinning usually it's one
30:19 video a week for you so
30:22 um but I just need to learn how to
30:24 balance it but yes thank you so much for
30:25 your support and for listening to me
30:28 ramble today I'll be back with my goals
30:29 next time another side hustling video
30:31 this week and then next week we'll be
30:33 back to sewing of course and I have lots
30:35 of sewing and costuming and crafting and
30:36 all kinds of stuff coming up for you
30:37 this year so I hope you'll stick around
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