Did you miss me? It has been over a month since I uploaded a real video to my main YouTube channel. I would love for you to take some time to hear what I have been doing. What could possibly be more self-gratifying than that? If you have missed the Jerry Banfield videos, I actually took the most time off at home that I have taken in quite a while, and I want to tell you what I did, what happened, what I am up to now, and how nice of you to be here.
So what was I doing last month? I was streaming Gods Unchained every day on Twitch. I spent about 77 hours streaming Gods Unchained on Twitch. Great community, everything about it was great, except that it was taking way too much of my time. I think it is really important for each of us to find the meaning in our life, what we are really here to do, and where we give the most value to others. And from what I have seen, here is where I give the most value to others: I give the most value in my videos, especially the educational ones on my channels.
Figuring Out Where I Give the Most Value
I have this main channel, which I am going to use for vlogs and anything that does not fit on the rest of my channels. What you all seem to appreciate collectively, as in the seven-or-so billion people on this planet, are the crypto videos, the crypto reviews I do, the gaming videos, the recovery videos, and the videos I upload to YouTube. Out of all the things I could do in my studio, filming a video like this seems to be what you all care most that I do.
Here is what happened. My crypto channel, which is my most profitable channel and the one that has gotten the most views ever since I started it, got taken down. It gets way more traffic than this main channel does. I think a bunch of bots attacked the channel, and YouTube took about six days to review it. During those six days, I took some time to review what I am doing with my life. I realized I have enough time to stream Gods Unchained on Twitch if that is what I want to do, but then I do not have time to do anything else. I have time to do one thing really well. And what is that one thing? It seems obvious. I have been doing it for a long time, but making educational and entertaining videos on YouTube seems to be the thing I have done that has been most appreciated for the longest amount of time.
Deciding to Quit Streaming
I took a few days to reconsider my strategy. I already had this channel, and I brought it back from the dead to start some new crypto reviews. I initially thought I would just quit gaming again. But then I realized, no, I love gaming, we are not going to do that. What I really needed to do after taking a step back was to quit streaming. Streaming is the single biggest time sink. I do not have time to stream and do videos both. I have a few hours a day, maybe two or three hours, where I can work or have hobbies and entertainment like gaming.
What I love is that with these six YouTube channels, plus uploading to the Jerry Banfield Show podcast on Spotify and iTunes, I can spread everything out. Getting my channel taken down reminded me that I need to make sure my content is mirrored and not all in on one platform. But I realized during this time that if I am going to do one thing for work, it is YouTube videos, not streaming. I just do not have enough time for streaming. And what is beautiful about doing videos is that I can cover all different subjects, because clearly I cannot be confined to one thing. I want to talk crypto every day. I want to play some games and consistently share those. I want to share life updates. I want to put up recovery videos to help people get sober. I want to share what I have learned in my business as a YouTuber. And I want to be able to do all of that in the least amount of time and consistently earn enough income to pay my part of the bills and build wealth. There is nothing better for me to do than these YouTube videos. These get watched way more than my gaming streams do.
The Freedom of Playing Off Stream
I love that I can do these YouTube videos and then be free. Over the last couple of weeks, I actually played video games for more than ten hours off stream, mostly Hogwarts Legacy, which is a new game set in the Harry Potter universe. It was so much fun. I just spent hours off stream, and I am going to play for a couple of hours tonight while the kids are falling asleep. I love playing games off stream, and I am sick of playing games on stream.
It is nice to face the reality that I do not have the time. When I was making time to stream and upload videos, I was taking time away from my family. I was constantly busy. I was listening all the time to crypto content to make my crypto videos, and then spending all the rest of the time watching Gods Unchained streams. I had rapidly gotten up to the top division and built up a huge collection in Gods Unchained. But that collection is only good for streaming Gods Unchained. What I really want is to offer the things I have that are most valuable to as many people as are capable of receiving them. I look at what the greatest contribution I can make in this life is, and it is giving the best of what I have got to everyone who wants to receive it in the most effective way.
So I do feel some grief sometimes. I love Gods Unchained. I enjoy streaming it. But I would really need four more hours every day to keep doing that, and I do not have four more hours. I have responsibilities. I have got dishes to wash. Now, I could hire someone to wash the dishes and take the kids to school, but those are activities I do not want to miss. When I am doing dishes, the kids are around, and I want to spend time with my family. If I had four more hours a day, I would definitely be live streaming Gods Unchained. At this rate, I do not think I am going to do hardly any more live streams at all, because it is just so time efficient to record videos instead.
Showing Up Consistently Instead of Chasing Perfect
I step up here and, obviously, I do not take that long to make these thumbnails, and I do not have to. If you have seen my face and you see the title, the thumbnail does not matter that much. You are either going to watch or not. Sure, I could get a few more clicks out of a better thumbnail, but the more time I put into trying to make perfect videos, the less time I have to just show up consistently. So now what I am aiming to do is put out a maximum of one video a day on as many of my YouTube channels as I can, so I can be here to offer you something every day that can be useful for you and useful indefinitely into the future, there for people searching. Then I can do whatever else I want the rest of the day: be there for my family, spend time with my mom, walk my mom's dog, go to yoga, and go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. If I just do YouTube videos, I have a really balanced life.
While I am giving up the live streaming, I can still do streams. But the key is that if I want to do a stream, I have to be totally oblivious to the views. It has to be just for a video. At this rate, though, I would rather just play games offline or play games only to make a video, and I do not want to stream anything besides gaming either. So I am letting go of my live streams. I have been taking a few weeks to reflect on where I am at, and that is what got me thinking about making this video.
I met a girl at yoga yesterday who was surprisingly friendly. I go to yoga and see lots of people, and hardly anyone just says hi, starts talking, introduces themselves, and is interested to know about me. She had not even seen a video, but she was curious. I kind of think of this channel as a dumpster because of the algorithm. It has so many different people on it, and it does not put the videos out that often. But hey, I look at the last one at 400-and-something views, the one before that at a couple thousand, the one before that at a thousand. I certainly feel like a god sometimes, that anything I make a video about, somebody is going to watch. Even when it is in my head like, this is such a crappy video, nobody cares about your life that much, not even your wife wants to hear this. I talked to my wife and she said, I do not even know what you do anymore. I said, just tell people I am a YouTuber. She said, I am not telling them that. I said, well, what are you going to tell them? She said, I will tell them you are just a stay-at-home husband.
How to Get Connected With Me
I intend to keep putting videos up on this channel as often as I can, and I really appreciate you being here. If you want the full spectrum of what I am doing, I have got all these other channels I am uploading to. On a day where I have got time, I will hit every one of these channels with a video. And if you really want to get connected, build a relationship with me, and be part of the community, the best way to work with me today is to join the Jerry Banfield Family, where you can message me directly and connect with everyone else who is on this journey. If you are a fellow creator, everything I have learned about growing on YouTube is also gathered up in my YouTube Coaching playlist so you can start applying it right away. I am grateful that the community side is doing well, because it means I have enough that I can just focus on creating the best videos, whatever is in my heart to share each day.
Once things were going well, I wanted to go back and play Gods Unchained, and I did, and I bought a nice collection of cards. But it turns out there is not enough time to be a YouTuber and also be of service to the people I am helping. So I am a YouTuber, and then I help the people in my community, and that is all I do for work. What a joy.
The Schedule I Am Aiming For
If you want more of these videos, here is the schedule I am hoping to crank them out on. I am hoping to put a video out most days at midnight, a crypto review at 4 a.m., and a recovery video at 4 a.m. as well, meaning anything related to making your life better, self-development, getting sober, healing from trauma, and reaching your spirituality. Then at 8 a.m., if I have got a video for this channel, which I hope I will most days, that goes out. At 12 p.m. a crypto video for Jerry Banfield Crypto, Jerry Banfield Business at 4 p.m. Eastern, Jerry Banfield Gaming at 8 p.m., crypto reviews at midnight, recovery at 4 a.m., then back on this channel at 8. We will see how long I can keep up with that. If I need to take breaks, I will take breaks and be more open to resting instead of endlessly grinding. But when I have got time, my butt is up here in the studio.
I realized today that I had been making an excuse. I was not publishing videos because I kept telling myself I would just make really long, massive videos that get tons of clicks, and that probably was not going to work. Meanwhile, you are here, ready for me to give you a video, and I was not doing anything. So it was nice taking some time off, but I am back, baby. Let's go. I will see you on another Jerry Banfield video soon.