515: Why YouTube Feels Impossible (And How to Make It Easier)

Summary

---

The Think Media Podcast

Episode 515: Why YouTube Feels Impossible (And How to Make It Easier)

Date: May 14, 2026
Hosts: Sean Cannell and Nathan Eswine

---

Overview

This episode of the Think Media Podcast tackles one of the most common struggles for YouTube creators: consistency. Hosts Sean Cannell and Nathan Eswine dive deep into the four core reasons why maintaining a steady output on YouTube can feel impossible, especially for creators juggling work, family, or neurodiversity like ADHD. Drawing from personal experiences and direct community feedback, they not only break down the barriers but provide practical, no-nonsense solutions for simplifying your YouTube workflow and regaining joy and momentum as a creator.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Overproduction: Doing Too Much, Too Soon

• [02:46] Nathan Eswine: Overproduction is cited as the #1 reason creators burn out or fall behind. Many attempt to juggle too much—long-form, Shorts, live streams, daily posts—when they’re still figuring out basics.
• [03:40] Sean Cannell: Illustrates the vicious cycle: “You had too much footage… you were doomed from the start. You’re overproducing now. That’s part of the learning curve.”
• Solution:
  • Lower the production bar early on; focus on getting content out, not perfecting it.
  • “A video that's published on YouTube is infinitely more powerful than a project on your computer and video files on your hard drive.” —Sean Cannell [04:53]

2. No Content Cadence: Starting from Scratch Every Time

• [05:14] Nathan Eswine: Outlines the draining mental tax of reinventing the wheel for each video: “The startup cost that you keep paying every single week starts to mount up quicker than anything else. It's this overhead tax.”
• [07:15] Sean Cannell: Stresses the magic of repeatable formats and content templates: “A repeatable format becomes a template that actually reduces the cognitive load.”
• [09:50] Sean Cannell: On decision fatigue: “Tired eyes rarely see a bright future. So, if you can simplify your life and make fewer decisions, more mental toughness [and] more mental optimism [follows].”
• Solution:
  • Decide on a publishing schedule and reverse-engineer your workflow.
  • Create repeatable video formats/templates to reduce decision fatigue.

3. Chasing Perfection: The Trap that Kills Output

• [12:04] Nathan Eswine: Identifies perfectionism as a creativity killer: “All perfectionism is, is decision after decision after decision… It’s never good enough.”
• [13:05] Sean Cannell: Quotes George Lucas: “No film is ever finished. It's only abandoned.” —[13:18]
• [14:01] Sean Cannell: Emphasizes progress over perfection and not stalling uploads by endless tweaks: “No YouTube video is ever done. It’s abandoned. Publish it, move on. Ultimately, progress beats perfect every time.”
• Solution:
  • Accept that there's always room to improve, but publishing is what creates results.
  • Avoid overthinking titles, thumbnails, or edits—pick one and move forward.

4. Lack of Systems: Relying Solely on Willpower

• [15:37] Nathan Eswine: Describes life as a side-hustling creator—balancing job, family, and YouTube often leaves little structure.
• [16:02] Nathan Eswine: “We don’t have a system for the YouTube time… How do I make time to do the video? And that’s what I think hits most people.”
• [17:00] Nathan shares his approach: open conversations with those around him, carving out fixed, protected "Side Hustle Saturday" blocks for YouTube work, and being intentional in scheduling creative efforts.
• Solution:
  • Have honest conversations with those around you to create non-negotiable content blocks.
  • Systematize not just video creation, but the actual scheduling of work periods.
  • Lean on frameworks like the Think Media "7 Rs" video production system.

---

Five Practical Steps to Make YouTube Easier

([20:17] Sean Cannell & Nathan Eswine)

1. Reduce Your Production Standard

   • Deliver value in the simplest way possible; live streams as low-friction content are a great option.

   “Reduce your production standard so you can get more videos out.” —Sean Cannell [20:54]

2. Pick a Realistic Cadence

   • Consistency should fit your actual life, not just what the algorithm wants.

   “What matters more is you, because you’re the reason that something comes out on YouTube.” —Nathan Eswine [21:18]

3. Build Repeatable Formats

   • Structure makes the creative process less taxing and more sustainable.
   • Examples: Weekly themed videos, interviews, series, or templates based on topics.

   “The same structure every time means less thinking, more doing.” —Sean Cannell [21:53]

4. Batch Your Work

   • Group similar activities (scripting, filming, editing) to maximize focus and efficiency.

   “Whatever day of the week you have off, just have half of it set aside… plenty of time to get a couple videos done.” —Nathan Eswine [24:52]

5. Track Inputs, Not Just Outcomes

   • Count what you control (uploads, scripts written, videos published), not just views or subscribers.
   • Hack your reward system to find wins in effort, not just results.

   “You should be counting uploads, not views.” —Sean Cannell [30:06] “If you do the right inputs over a long enough time horizon, then the outcomes will come.” —Sean Cannell [29:40]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Perfectionism:

  “No film is ever finished. It's only abandoned.” —George Lucas, quoted by Sean Cannell [13:05]

• On Decision Fatigue:

  “Tired eyes rarely see a bright future.” —Sean Cannell [09:41]

• On Tracking Inputs:

  “You should be counting uploads, not views.” —Sean Cannell [30:06]

• On Systematizing YouTube:

  “You can't be consistent on top of a broken system.” —Sean Cannell [01:10]

• Encouragement for Side-Hustlers:

  “Side Hustle Saturday can become very meaningful. That is discipline. That's also design.” —Sean Cannell [20:16]

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:46] — Reason 1: Overproduction
• [05:14] — Reason 2: No Content Cadence/Decision Fatigue
• [12:04] — Reason 3: Chasing Perfection
• [15:37] — Reason 4: Lack of Systems/Willpower
• [20:17] — Five Practical Solutions (Lightning Round)
• [25:22] — The Power of Tracking Inputs, Not Outcomes

---

Tone & Takeaways

Sean and Nathan’s discussion is honest, supportive, and laced with humor and real-world examples—motivating creators to take a breath, lower the bar, make a realistic plan, and measure their YouTube journey by effort, not just algorithmic rewards. Their advice, drawn from years of building channels and coaching creators, distills the message: YouTube consistency is achievable when you stop chasing perfect and start designing a system that actually fits your life.

---

Recommended Further Resources (Mentioned):

• Free Creator Stage Quiz: mycreatorquiz.com ([30:06])
• 7-Step YouTube System (for students/VRA): thinkmasterclass.com ([18:03])

---

For more, subscribe to the Think Media Podcast and check the show notes for free resources, tools, and community support.

---

Transcript

[Sean Cannell]

Hey, really quick. I'm hosting a free class specifically for real estate and YouTube. If you want more leads, prospects and transactions from creating simple YouTube videos, just go to real tubeclass.com to register for free. This class is live. I'm going to be there for Q and A and it's happening May 13, so go to realtubeclass.com to register and to secure your spot. All right, let's jump into Today's episode.

[Nathan Eswine]

If YouTube feels impossible right now because you just can't stay consistent, you're not alone. In a recent poll, a lot of the creators in our community said that their biggest struggle right now is actually staying consistent and avoiding burnout. Biggest challenge is consistently putting out video content, staying focused on recording and editing with adhd. So in this episode, Sean and I are taking this head on. We're going to uncover four big reasons why you just can't get into the flow with your YouTube channel. And then some practical, no fluff solutions to help you focus on, dial in and actually bring some sanity back into your YouTube life. Sean, you started YouTube on the side, I started YouTube on the side. It's actually easy to relate with our community as we get into this conversation. What do you make of YouTube consistency these days?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah, I think the big problem here is most people are trying to be consistent while building on top of a broken system. And so what do I mean, the truth is everyone's busy, of course, at different levels. We got kids, we got work, we have a limited amount of time, we have different, maybe challenges, we've got different, you know, neuro styles, we've got different learning styles and things that could be advantages or disadvantages. But the bottom line is where most creators are failing is because they don't have a system. And what I mean is the week's chaotic. There's no plan, there's no routine. What are the habits? What are the routines? And not only just to set up and film, but to give yourself the confidence that you've identified the video on a film and then you've outlined it in a particular way and you're confident to deliver it. This is all systematizable. So that's what I think the power of this episode is, is to think through that. And then we can cover the practical stuff too. I mean, sometimes it is a practical tool like, you know, text your spouse and schedule Saturday morning. But bottom line, it's like you can't be consistent on top of a broken system. It's that most people are overloaded, they're Overwhelmed. There's too much chaos in life. There's actually too many things to do. We need to simplify down, say no to some things, relook at our calendar. And then we could also dive into these four reasons because these are the reasons why people and individuals. And thanks for the, you know, Think media podcast feedback on the community tab on the YouTube channel.

[Nathan Eswine]

A hundred percent.

[Sean Cannell]

These are some of the biggest reasons, though. And you can hit number one of why people are inconsistent on YouTube for sure.

[Nathan Eswine]

And I think you hit the nail on the head. The first big reason here is fellow creator, you are over producing. You have committed yourself to doing way too many things all at the same time. And most likely at the beginning. Like, while this is a new thing you're trying to figure out, which is like the worst time to be trying to do everything is right at the beginning of something new. And this takes, you know, many shapes and forms. You could be having. Your editing standards are far too high right now. You could actually be posting on too many platforms. Here's a hot take. You could be actually doing too much on YouTube itself. You're trying to do long form, people are trying to do shorts. You're turning on live streaming. You just started your video podcast, and you make sure to have a post go out every single day. You know what I mean? Like, you're just trying to do too much. And so the result is slow output burnout. You always feel like you're behind because you've simply given yourself too much to produce in any given week. How do you see this play out, Sean?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah, it's lower the production bar at the start. Like, you know, one of the ways I see this play out is people wanna start vlogging or travel vlogging. And I've heard this story from lots of travel vloggers in our community that we've coached is they're like, they got a GoPro or their phone or some kind of point and shoot camera, action, camera drone. And they go, I'm so pumped. I just got back from our Hawaii trip. We've got 20 hours of footage on a hard drive. And I like, think ahead and then they might come back. In one of our community meetings a couple weeks later, I just am stuck. I'm still working through that footage. And I was like, that was your problem. You were doomed from the start. You had too much footage, which is a system about how you shot, which was the fact that, like, the total workflow, it was over. You're overproducing now. That's Part of the learning curve.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

There's been times when too I've had. I've been too ambitious with the project. And so I've got, you know, abandoned projects on hard drives, B roll that was shot that never made it in. So that just speaks to like simplifying down, especially at the start, for something that's repeatable. Lower the production bar of your content. Get out the minimum VI product.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

Be okay with putting something out, getting it to market, because a video that's published on YouTube is infinitely more powerful than a project on your computer and video files on your hard drive that was never published. Yeah, like you got to publish it before it's done. So that's the first one. Reason number two is there's no content cadence. Break this down 100%.

[Nathan Eswine]

So this can destroy your week when every video you're starting from a blank slate.

[Sean Cannell]

Yes.

[Nathan Eswine]

The startup cost that you just keep paying every single week starts to mount up quicker than anything else. Because it's this overhead tax, I've heard it call it. Because anytime you take On a project, YouTube video is goodness at an enormous project. We overestimate or we underestimate all the little tasks that go along with the project of making a YouTube video. And so if you're starting from scratch every single time, there's no way to repeat this. Right. Because you're always. Or you are repeating it, but you're repeating it pretty poorly. You're repeating it in a way that doesn't give you momentum. And this is where decision fatigue starts to mount up. I totally suffered from this when I was starting with my YouTube channel. Like, I just kept making the same decisions over and over and over again. And so to say you don't have a content cadence, that just means like, what's the system underneath? Like, you've already pre decided when a video is going to come out. Therefore, you can reverse engineer. Okay, video drops on Friday, which means video needs to be done by what, Thursday. Which means for it to be done, it has to be on my computer. By what? You know what I mean? You just like really trace it back so you actually have a system to plug to, but just to keep it real, because this is also can be my style is I just love to be the artist and show up and feel my way through my YouTube week. And that I had to stop that so quick.

[Sean Cannell]

Sean.

[Nathan Eswine]

Actually, for me, my. The way that I solved this and gave myself a better content cadence was I switched to live streaming, which isn't just saying, oh, that's what you should do. It's just what helped me. Because it was a scheduled thing and

[Sean Cannell]

it forced you to go live at that moment, ready or not.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes. I had no choice. And so all of a sudden, no edits. I had to reverse. I had to be ready for that. You know, it helped me stop winging it and reacting and trying to fit and squeeze time and help me step into a posture of okay, where, like when am I choosing before it even gets to Monday, where have I chosen for my time to go based on what's coming up? So there's a little bit there. But how do you approach this when it comes to content cadence?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah. I think the other thing here is you want repeatable formats. And what I mean, I'm so glad you brought up decision fatigue because a repeatable format becomes a template that actually reduces the cognitive load. So if you're like, you know, one of the repeatable formats you're doing on the Think Media channel is walking through how to like set up a YouTube channel in a multi video series. I would argue that series. It's not that it doesn't require prep.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

And not that it's easy because you're studying, you're learning, you already have your knowledge. But what's the newest stuff? But it's a repeatable format.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

So as you approach the next one, there's almost nowhere you could get stuck.

[Nathan Eswine]

Right.

[Sean Cannell]

You know that it's going to be like screen shared. You know that it's going to be whatever and it's going to go. It's going to be a part of a series. So it's a repeatable format. So it is actually not decision fatigue when you. It's not causing decision fatigue. When you go, what video do I shoot next? Don't you have to think about it? It's on the list, just happens. And there's a format for it. And thus consistency is on the other side. Where people get stuck in consistency is it's not a bad thing to have this blank canvas. As an artist, where might that lead? Nowhere. Not to a finished product.

[Nathan Eswine]

Right.

[Sean Cannell]

It'll lead to shooting and some ideas and setting things up and maybe add this in. But are you going to get to a finished product? And just to give one other point on this, every creator, every business owner needs to understand decision fatigue. One of the best illustrations of this was Steve Jobs was famous for wearing like the same black tank top and the same black jeans.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

Which meant he just had a closet full because he cared so much about his brain power. Being devoted to Apple, that he didn't want to waste time walking into the closet in the morning and even picking out what to wear. And so what people need to know is that might sound crazy and it kind of is.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

But it goes into even. All day long, we're making decisions. What do I want to eat for lunch? What do I want to wear? What's even the studio going to be? How do I set this up? Decision fatigue is very real. And then what happens is the more choices you make, the worse they get, but also the more overwhelmed you get. I'm overwhelmed. I don't even know what to shoot. This thing's going to suck. Tired eyes rarely see a bright future. So it's like if you can simplify your life and less decisions, period. More mental toughness, more mental optimism. Plus have repeatable formats. You're like sitting down with better energy. And again, we're. We're speaking to the people who filled out the survey. It was like basically at least one out of four people are really struggling with consistency right now in our community.

[Nathan Eswine]

A hundred percent.

[Sean Cannell]

You're fractured, you're overwhelmed. You don't have the energy to film. Your decision bank is zero by the time you sit down to film. Stop wasting your energy on all these other decisions. Plug into a repeatable format. Even if it feels boring some seasons, it'll keep you consistent. There's the day you wake up on a day off on summer break and spring break and are like so inspired, and it hits you. And you filmed this super creative video and it was a vlog and you went around the city and the way it turned out, that's amazing. And like publish that. But also, if you're always trying to, like, catch magic, this is also the writer who just says, I sit down every morning, I wake up at 5:00am and I write for 90 minutes, good or bad. And I make myself write 5,000 words. Yes. And then they're also removing the decision fatigue. When do you write? Every day at 5am I sit down at my computer and I write at least 5,000 words. Whether I feel like it or not, whether I. Whatever. That's a repeatable schedule. That's a cadence.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

So there's kind of a lot there. We could speed up, but that's a big deal. And if you master decision fatigue, you're going to be a lot more consistent.

[Nathan Eswine]

100%, I think, of this. Well, you depreciate this. This John Maxwell quote that's actually really helped me. As we get into reason number three is People often overestimate the event and underestimate the process. And I think that's actually what definitely happened to me early on. But I think this is what happens to a lot of creators who are kind of feeling it right now, is we got so excited, all the momentum was there, the inspiration was there, and so we overestimated the event of starting YouTube.

[Sean Cannell]

Yes.

[Nathan Eswine]

And we, like, usually it's like a big buildup. It's like, man, I actually did my first video, which is huge, which should be celebrated. But the other side of that is underestimating the process. Like, okay, I did it, but how do I do it again? You know, and then how do I do it again after that? And now we have to get more specific.

[Sean Cannell]

Hey, quick pause before we get back into the podcast. If you're posting on YouTube but not getting the views or subscribers you want, this will help. Go to mycreatorquiz.com It's a free two minute assessment that reveals what type of creator you are, where you're stuck, and what to do next to grow. You'll get instant clarity, a simple plan, and it's totally free. So just go to mycreatorquiz.com to take the free 2 minute assessment or click the link in the show notes. All right, let's jump back into the episode.

[Nathan Eswine]

Reason number three is you could be chasing perfection. I don't know about you, Sean. This, I. I like to say I'm a recovering perfectionist because this was definitely me. I just, it's easy for me to overthink. I want things to be dialed in. I want things to be perfect. There's a certain standard that I've set for myself, but this can absolutely kill burnout because if you. Or kill your. Your content cadence and lead to burnout because it's. With the decision bank being as low as it probably is, you see how these can all compound on each other. As you're chasing perfection, you just drain it even more because all your all perfectionism is. Is decision after decision after decision. You keep rethinking. It's never good enough. And so you continuously are trying to find this moving target of what's perfect, what made the video good enough to actually post. And so this results in delays, missing uploads, mental drain, and a channel that just doesn't grow. You can't pilot your channel on the whims of these emotions or on what you think is like subjective. Like, oh, this is a perfect video, you know?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah. One of my favorite quotes is from George Lucas, the creator of Star wars. And he was famous for saying, no film is ever finished. It's only abandoned.

[Nathan Eswine]

Ooh, yeah, yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

And what's fascinating is you could look up on YouTube, let's say, like, Easter eggs in Star Wars, A New Hope, you know, or those first three movies that came out, and what you'll find is like, maybe 50, 100, 150, a scene where a stormtrooper wasn't even wearing their helmet. Like, it could. It's obviously subtle because we didn't even notice. But in the edit, you're sitting down, all the camera crew is shut down, everyone's home from the film. Now we're just in the edit. And then you're like, what the heck was Ralph doing, dude? That's our only take corner.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

Ralph is not wearing a stormtrooper helmet.

[Nathan Eswine]

That's right.

[Sean Cannell]

And so. But no finishes. No film is ever finished. It's abandoned. Okay, well, then publish it anyways. Put it out there anyways.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

So, like, obviously too, a feature film like Star wars is of a level of quality, but you should take that exact framework and apply it all the way down to your channel. You could have the opposite extreme of not chasing high quality. Like, you should chase high quality content, but at Some point, your YouTube video may never be done. You just need to abandon it. Meaning you've done a decent enough job. You have thought about it. You've. You have. Don't overthink your titles, but, like, really think about your titles. And maybe you're using our Think Media AI tool that our students have access to, that's programmed with all the psychological triggers and stuff. The problem with our tool is actually it's so good, it'll give you so many great. Like, 10 out of 10 titles.

[Nathan Eswine]

Agreed.

[Sean Cannell]

Now you're torn.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

So now you're. And. And maybe your channel's not big enough to split test yet. Or maybe you could split test. The three point bottom line, though, is you. You are overthinking. And it's like, you gotta eventually pick one. If. If a proven AI tool from Think Media is giving you feedback and you've been following our stuff, and they're all 10 out of 10. I don't know. Pick one. You gotta. You gotta get the. The video out there. So, yeah, I think that's an interest. No YouTube video is ever done. It's abandoned. Publish it, move on. Ultimately, progress beats perfect every time. Which brings us to number four. You don't have a system, so everything runs on willpower. We've hit this. But Break this down from your perspective. Obviously, we have our seven step system. Yeah, that's a YouTube system, but systems are more macro of like, how did you build a YouTube channel that ended up making thousands of dollars while being busy with family, work and everything else?

[Nathan Eswine]

Man, no, Light took some time. So that's just, that's part of it. But some accelerators for me. So there's the system of how you do the video. I love how you call that out. And that that itself was a game changer, which was like the seven Rs and like, that's what I followed. So I, when I had YouTube time, all right, I'm doing step one and two today.

[Sean Cannell]

All right.

[Nathan Eswine]

Next day I'm doing three and four. Like there was a system to process when I do YouTube time. But I think the reason for burnout is we don't have a system for the YouTube time.

[Sean Cannell]

Yes, right.

[Nathan Eswine]

Like, got it. You know what I mean? It's one thing to like, try to figure out, okay, how to do the video, but how do I make time to do the video? And that's actually what I think hits most people because we can have a lot of things. You got a job, you got family responsibilities, respect. For me in my season was married at a full time job. And so the way that I started to build a system that was actually conducive to my life just started with conversations, like real talk. And the first person for me I had to talk to was my wife, which was like, hey, and I wish more creators would do this. I absolutely know and fully own that not everyone supports this YouTube thing, right? And like, you could be with someone who doesn't understand this. It doesn't have to be a significant other. It could just be like your roommate, your like siblings, or just whatever people you're around. Your circle don't get this. But in my situation, it was the flip. So for me, my wife was just all in. And she was so supportive, which came with its own sort of stress. Sean, to be like, no, go buy the gear. She's like pushing you just like, yeah, okay.

[Sean Cannell]

You wanted to like hide on.

[Nathan Eswine]

I don't know if I'm ready yet.

[Sean Cannell]

And she's like, no, you should get started. Why don't you punch me in the face?

[Nathan Eswine]

She gave me no opportunity to hide. She's like, when is that live stream? You know, it's like, oh, what the. You know, this is crazy, right? And so with her, that conversation did go well, though. I understand it can be difficult, but talking to your circle, talking to the people in your life and trying to organize, hey, here's what's important to me. I'm trying to carve out time. I'm not trying to overstep with whatever. When I keep my response, you just like talk. And I wish more people would do this. And so anyway, that gave me a day, a week. It was side hustle Saturday. And that was like one of my big times to work on this YouTube thing because it was predetermined. It's on the calendar. Everyone who in my life that I cared about that should know about that, did know about that. So there was no questions. Talk about a system that just happened on autopilot. And then in the days, it was also trying to identify, okay, when is the best time of day amidst my full time job and responsibilities to be able to work on this thing. And I think if you could just cover those, identify the time that you're gonna spend making videos and put those times on autopilot. And everyone that needs to be on board is on board. You're cooking. You know what I mean?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah, that's good. And you mentioned also the seven step system. We're not gonna cover that here, but we have a free class. ThinkMasterClass.com goes through all seven steps of our YouTube growth system. What I love about that is what you mentioned. The missing piece is scheduling the time to work on YouTube. So you just shared how you could do that. But then when you sit down, even that there's like transition costs. Okay, so now what do I do? What am I gonna. All right, I scheduled the time, but should I ideate today? Should I film today? Should I whatever. And that's why we've put that all into a system for you. So you kind of just gave people the full map. Like, we have the seven step system even for our VRA students listening. But, like, make sure to block the YouTube time on your calendar, keep that repeatable, and then when you sit down, go back to, you know, the resources, our community and like, which are you on? Which are. Which literally are you on next? And keep going through all seven steps. VRA would understand what that means. If you're new here again, got a free one hour class, thinkmasterclass.com you can watch it on demand. I go through our seven step system, which we keep running that same play here at Think Media. We keep improving it. That's the most updated class. And we'll link that in the show notes as well as you can go to the URL. But listen, we gotta talk about how to fix this briefly as we land the plane today. Because really, again, consistency isn't just about discipline. It needs to be about that. You actually have to show up to the calendar blocks. But more than discipline, that feels like design. You've architected your week.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

You're. You're putting stuff on your calendar. You're maybe also not being realistic. There's some days when you have to forget your feelings and just do the work.

[Nathan Eswine]

And that's real.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah, That's a real thing. But also sometimes where I think we're unrealistic. Like, what are you saying no to if it's on the calendar? Even the rest of the around it, like, yeah, Saturday is going to be all right. I'm going to be a little more intentional about, like, not eating, you know, 200 grams of sugar the night before.

[Nathan Eswine]

That's right.

[Sean Cannell]

And like, staying up super late because tomorrow I have something planned. And so then it's. You design that. And then you showed up. Side Hustle Saturday lead to led to thousands of dollars from your YouTube channel.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah. 100%.

[Sean Cannell]

Like over 30 grand or something.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah. At a tight 30K a year. Like 10 hours a week.

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah. And so Side Hustle Saturday can become very meaningful. That is discipline. That's also designed. But we're gonna talk about five practical steps for how to fix this. And we'll hit these as kind of a lightning round. Cause we've hit some of them. I'll let you hit number two in a second. Number one, reduce your production standard. We mentioned that. But what's the simplest version of your content that still delivers value? Hint, you did a live stream. You still prepared, but it forced you to hit record with no editing, and you turned it off. And there was. And there was the replay.

[Nathan Eswine]

It's already on YouTube.

[Sean Cannell]

There's the replay.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

There's no editing. You're forced to. No editing.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

Reduce your production standard. Do you need multiple angles? Can you do it in one take? Can you simplify the editing? Just reduce your production standard so you can get more videos out. Number two, go for it 100%.

[Nathan Eswine]

The second thing is going to be to pick a realistic cadence like we talked about. Now, this cadence actually should be determined by you and your life before you're thinking about what's best for the algorithm. Sure. Does YouTube want you to be consistent and something comes out ideally every week? Of course. But what matters more is you, because you're the reason that something comes out on YouTube. And so the best thing is actually, hey, match it to your Life, what's actually happening in your reality, not necessarily your ambition levels right now. Focus on what you can actually do and accomplish. Even if that's one time a week, that's going to be way better than just trying to be random. Right?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah. Third thing, third thing is build repeatable formats. So the same structure every time means less thinking, more doing. Not everybody has an interview show, but the powerful thing of doing a video podcast on an interview show is like schedule person, prepare for interview, conduct interview.

[Nathan Eswine]

That's right.

[Sean Cannell]

Good or bad, like it's a repeatable format and you're letting the reason I love interviews, you're letting the guests do the heavy lifting. If you're a good interviewer, you're also doing heavy lifting. But like, they're certainly the expert coming in there. But the repeatable format, you know, consider studying like late night comedy. Some of these, some of these shows I don't even think are very good or maybe have had ups and downs. We take like snl, there's formats, little musical break, there's the intro person that introduces and goes in some skits. Some of those skits are repeatable. Take something else today. Welcome to a segment of our show, Regis and Kelly Lee. Now, you know Kelly Ripa doing other stuff like their shows. She covers the news. She covers. So all the way down to. Even if it's this week in tech, this week in finance. But the point is a repeatable format. Why? To reduce decision fatigue. So there's less thinking, more doing, more uploads. You're gonna be more consistent. What's number four?

[Nathan Eswine]

Number four. This can be powerful, but this is actually batching your work. This is the concept of filming multiple videos at one time or actually whatever part of the process you're doing for YouTube. If you're already gonna be burning the brain calories thinking of a video, you might as well think about the next two or three. You're already in that headspace. If you're gonna burn brain calories designing a thumbnail, you might as well go ahead and design another couple, three courses. Requires you having those videos planned out, but the same thing for filming. And this is what we're doing right now. Sean, full disclosure, I don't think this is like day two. I don't even know. I'm delirious. Just kidding. But it's like we will have done like 10 episodes or something, but it's time we fly back, you know, and so we're, we're condensing the time and we're trying to put Together, the same brain activities right in the same session to get a higher return instead of the setup friction that comes from just starting and stopping every week. It's a new thing. It's a new thing. So I think batching your work can be pretty powerful.

[Sean Cannell]

And I want to hit an objection. Number one disclaimer. It is a blessing that you and I get to do this full time. So, you know, does that make it easier to batch? Yes. But number two, listen, I would batch. Did you batch when you were full time?

[Nathan Eswine]

When I. When I stopped live streaming and switched to filming, yes. I would do, like, two.

[Sean Cannell]

Like, when I'm full a lot, though. When I was full time working at a church, I was batch producing. That was the way I stayed. So I just want to encourage, not only can anybody do this, but as hard as this is, I was just sending you guys audio messages this morning. I was like, our future depends on this, because, again, we get to do this full time. But also, you got kids, I got kids. We're busy, like, batching these, filming multiple videos, sure, it could give us some time to rest and whatnot, but there's even just other things we operationally do, as every creator does. So whether batching is very leverageable. Respect to people, too. Sometimes they're like, yeah, it could be over. You could batch too much. You get too far ahead. Yeah, there's that extreme. But I just think, well, it's kind of hard. That seems like a lot of work. The ROI of batching is worth it.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

When you get into a cadence where you're buying back your time to make this whole thing sustainable and stay consistent 100%.

[Nathan Eswine]

And actually, I think this is. This is why the side hustle Saturday, for me was pretty powerful, because it was kind of hard to batch a couple videos during the workweek. And so, you know, everyone has different work schedules, but whatever day of the week that is, you might have off just to have half of it set aside like now. It's plenty of time, I think, to be able to get in the zone and get a couple videos done. So I'm a big fan of that. But number five is tracking inputs, not just outcomes. Can you break this down, Sean? Like, tracking inputs? What are the inputs when it comes to a YouTube Creator's Week?

[Sean Cannell]

You know, I actually want to do a whole episode about this, so make sure people are subscribed to this. But one of the things that's interesting is that our brains work off reward loops. And one of the things that happens as humans is why Social media or like video games become addictive is because there's a positive reward loop connected to those. You, you know, you play a little bit, you get an armor upgrade, a weapons upgrade, you defeat a boss, even if you're frustrated for a while, if the game keeps progressing. The, you know, mobile games really understand these reward loops. What's Fascinating though, is YouTube, especially for beginners or people of all stages, is also. It's like the anti reward loop. Like when you open up a mobile game, you start playing FarmVille. It's like, ding, ding, ding, and coins are coming to you, and then your farm expands and like, okay, you open up YouTube, you're overwhelmed, you shoot a video, you upload it, you edit it for seven hours. It only gets seven views. That's an anti reward.

[Nathan Eswine]

Why would I keep going?

[Sean Cannell]

Why would I keep going? Yeah, yeah. When you, like, like, I don't know about if anybody else gets kind of like anxiety when it comes to filming. I start sweating. I'm setting up things and I start getting frustrated. I'm like, my garage is dirty. Where's that battery? I can't find that power supply. And you're like, setting up and you're kind of frustrated and you're very aware that, like, you've got back pain just because you started filming. It's like phantom.

[Nathan Eswine]

You're like, it shows up every time.

[Sean Cannell]

You're hungry, you're whatever.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yeah.

[Sean Cannell]

Like, it's actually interesting. It's, in a way, it can get fun, but it's like not a fun game. Yeah, it's, it's, it's giving you. And then you're, you're not getting. I didn't go viral. I didn't even get a comment. I didn't get a. Like, so when this is a big one, when people are saying I'm not being consistent. Awareness of being at least honest with your emotions. Hey, you're in a season where this is hard. You got to motivate yourself. Your brain chemistry is not optimized to, like, do this YouTube thing. You need the diligence to say, I'm investing in the future. This is practice. I'm leveling up. But here's how you hack it. And I kind of gave away that episode. But trust me, subscribe, because I want to talk about that at length. You track it by not measuring the dopamine hit because you got new armor, gold coins, things exploded. You got an award, you got confetti. You might not have had the viral video you didn't have because you're not tracking the outcomes which you track as the inputs. What's an input? Did you publish a video? If you did celebrate and hack your brain and go, there's the win.

[Nathan Eswine]

That was it.

[Sean Cannell]

That was my. I did. I got a couple. I leveled up my points. I got some experience points. I just got some experience points there. Ding, ding, ding. Let me track those.

[Nathan Eswine]

Yes.

[Sean Cannell]

I'm leveling up Final Fantasy Remake. I'm leveling up your favorite game. My weapons just got stronger. So did you publish that's an input, even if it didn't get views. Did I improve the hook of my video? I know. I've been studying Think media. I use some AI. You want to celebrate and track. You reach 10 uploads, go to your favorite restaurant, get a milkshake, Love that, you know, and be like, hey, that's a huge milestone. Those are input milestones. And by removing yourself, because if we're honest, especially kind of at the close of this episode, a lot of times the reason we're not consistent is because we lose that fire. And I don't blame people for losing the fire. You got to figure out how to generate that. The power plant does not receive energy. It generates energy. As the creator, you might be looking and actually, you know, thank God for this podcast. I think this adds a lot of energy to people. By the time they get done, they're like, let me go. Let's go. Yeah, so get. So get those inputs. Like, we will be. We'll ship you some power. We'll ship you some AI token energy or whatever.

[Nathan Eswine]

You know, I love it.

[Sean Cannell]

We're here to give that to you. But like, you yourself, you got to wake up and figure out a way to generate that. That fire within. Like, I'm just gonna do it. I'm pressing record today, and. And I'm not. It's not because I went viral, because I did it.

[Nathan Eswine]

That's right.

[Sean Cannell]

It's not. It's not. If I went and played a video game today, I would have got a lot more rewards and, like, more dopamine. I'm not going to, like, live as a victim to that. I'm creating that energy. I've got a clear vision for the future. I'm going to track my inputs, not just the outcomes, because if I do the right inputs over a long enough time horizon, then the outcomes will come.

[Nathan Eswine]

There it is. That's so strong. I love that. And I think, too, that's just redefining how you're measuring success. And I actually wish I would have done it earlier. On when I first started in thinking about, okay, what are the things I'm actually going to measure that are going to enable me to show up next week. And so I love that idea. You say all the time, Sean, especially when you're beginning, you should be counting uploads, not views. It's that philosophy, right? It's like, what does success look like for the season that I'm currently in?

[Sean Cannell]

Yeah. And if actually individuals listening to this want some help, we have a really cool free quiz [e-mail] and it's all about the five stages of YouTube. When it comes to being consistent, which stage you're on actually is different because the side hustle season, when you're, you're getting started as a creator versus, like the momentum maker, which is stage two, versus the video pro content pro stage three. Each stage has different habits, different things you could be doing to be consistent. Also, as more money's coming in and you also got mo money, mo problem. So, like, all that to say is if you don't know your stage yet or you haven't checked out this resource, go to mycreatorquiz.com it takes like three minutes. And it's not just going to give you fierce clarity about where you are on your YouTube journey. Immediately on that page, you're going to have some specific resources tailored for you that are totally free to help you get more views, get more subscribers, and make more progress on your YouTube journey. So mycreatorquiz.com is that URL. We'll also put the link in the show notes where people can check that out. Nathan, land the plane 100%.

[Nathan Eswine]

I sure wish that existed, actually, to be honest, because after coaching creator Sean, I think one of the biggest ways we clog up our YouTube work week is we don't even know what we're supposed to be working on for our stage. Yes, we're trying to execute stage five strategies at stage two.

[Sean Cannell]

It's good work.

[Nathan Eswine]

Wondering why we're just on loop, right? So mycreatorquiz.com get your free results today, but podcast, hey, like, rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. This is the Think Media podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.