PROPER batch-creating content

Here's what I'm doing differently this time 🤩

In the past 2 months I’ve been on a SPREE of consistent YouTube videos.

One a week! For 8 weeks!

WHO IS SHE?

Ehh, that’s great Katie but…why are you bothering?

What’s the point of YouTube? Videos!? Ew.

I really really enjoy it. I dooo! And isn’t that the best reason to do anything? Plus, when you enjoy stuff, it’s easy 😎.

I dabbled in YouTube in 2021, making a handful of videos before finding out I was pregnant and immediately being FAR too excited/nauseous/tired about that to focus on videos.

But during my break, something magical happened…

In those 2 years where I did absolutely nothing, my silly ol’ YouTube channel kept growing.

Even though I’d wandered off to have a baby, new subscribers trickled in, and I noticed views kept climbing up. This video - one of my first - somehow had 15k views.

I blinked and there were *checks notes* over 2000 subscribers on there?

Now I know these aren’t exciting viral break-the-internet numbers, but for the level of energy I’d put in, and the long-lifeyness of these videos I was INTERESTED.

In a world where Instagram posts die 24 hours after you post them, a 2 year + life span is even more interesting than finding out there’s unexpected apple pie and ice cream for pudding.

What I'm doing differently this time

In the past, I’ve approached content-creation with a bitty piecey kind of “ooh I feel inspired, let me post 12,000 stories in one day” approach. Batching never seemed interesting or doable.

UNTIL NOW!

While I still occasionally post 12,000 IG stories in a day, (can’t stop, won’t stop) I have been way more methodical about making these videos and it’s felt glorious to know that 8 videos are done and dusted and slowly being released while I get on with course creation and client work and, y’know, lying on the sofa watching Bluey.

I’d like to thank my toddler for motivating me to squash my work down into power-house chunks of productivity.

Short bursts of intense focus = 8 weeks of relaxation.

Here’s my video-batching process

1. Brainstorming ideas
   2 hours ish

2. Planning out the video (I map out the SEO, and write a bullet-point, very vague script)
   4 hours, in 2 chunks of time because zzzz

3. Filming time!
   2 half-days, on separate days otherwise TIRED / bored of my own voice

4. Fiddly bits
   Creating thumbnails, finding music, grabbing the screenshots etc. I might need, writing the video description and uploading it to YouTube.

5. Video editing
   Of the whole process, this is the most boring, time-consuming bit and honestly, I’d like to start outsourcing it. So far I’ve been editing the videos just before they’re released and that’s not been ideal. Hello 5am editing party for one.

On Being Strategic

From the get-go I didn’t just want to make videos willy-nilly.

I had a goal:

Lie down on the internet in a place where new people might trip over me serendipitously.

…and hopefully I’d help them discover The Good Ship Illustration and live illustration and maybe even be genuinely helped by at least some of my waffling. If something is fun *and* useful!? Count me iiiiiin.

Side note: lying down on the internet and being digitally tripped over is a marvellous marketing strategy. More on that in The Business Course.

Learning on the Job

The best way to learn! I’m still figuring out sound/music stuff, editing, setting my camera up properly etc. and I love working stuff out this way. Messily and in public 🤣

Anyways, here are the latest videos that I keep meaning to mention here:

• Come and draw with me! Live event illustration in Switzerland

• How to start your illustration career

• Big mistakes I made automating the sh*t out of my illustration business
  I did manage to mention this one:

• Starting out as an illustrator - 3 things I wish I’d known

• Finding your perfect work week | How I’m working 9 hours a week as an illustrator

• Using ✨REJECTION✨ to grow your creative business and build a thicker skin as an illustrator

• How to give (and get) great feedback - illustrators edition

• Live illustration and graphic recording tips

I might even make a video about this batching process 😅 Watch this space!