Staring at a blank notes app, wondering what to film next, is one of those things nobody warns you about when you start a channel. Here are six methods worth keeping in your back pocket. None of them requires waiting for inspiration. 1. YouTube autocomplete: start typing your topic into the search bar and let the suggestions do the work. Those are real searches happening right now. Turn the best ones into titles. 2. Comment sections on bigger channels in your niche: look for questions, frustrations, or "I wish someone would explain this" moments. Those are video ideas sitting there unaddressed. 3. Communities and forums: Reddit, Facebook groups, wherever your audience spends time. What are people debating or struggling with? Go answer it on camera. 4. Your own analytics: sort by watch time or views over the last 28 to 90 days and look for patterns in your top performers. Make more of what's already working. 5. AI: give it a specific prompt about your niche and your audience. The more detail you add, the more useful the output. 6. Winning titles in your niche: find high-performers and try a new angle, a fresher hook, or an updated version of the same topic. Most of these will give you three to five ideas in a single sitting. The goal is to batch them so you always have a backlog and never make decisions from a blank page. Which one do you tend to skip or forget about? Des

https://fathom.video/share/xwsyoMhBao4sQRNQFGFsWtm1s-ox43Ve

Oh No! Y'all are leaving me behind. No worries, I will catch up! I got distracted in my "recovery" and started planning an opt-in for my channel. My hosting checkout app was having problems so I switched to one that I am used to working and it was sooo much faster. I decided to leave ​that alon​e and get back to my other work and this challenge. I have to say, the distraction was good because I kept working.​ But then, I wanted a particular hairstyle for this 30 second video. I wanted to color the grey. Why didn't I think, I could always do another 30 video with the hairstyle I wanted. (Oh the self-perfection drama!) Update on the Taxes: Second one 95% done, Third on 30% done. I have time for the 3rd one so it will wait. I'm not getting FOMO, but I will catch up! Update on the Recovery: Yesterday (7 days later), I had to drive myself past that same accident scene. I did everything not to relive the horror I saw a week ago but the emotional shock started rising up. I breathed, sucked on 2 mints, blasted Pandora with Gospel Music, and thought about your collective prayer wishes (which helped!)—all while driving past this area. In a few seconds, it was behind me. The ​Lesson: Sometimes you must go through the painful horror to get to the other side. What I didn't share in my last post (Day 9, Part A) was that I was in a rollover accident myself, so the memories crept in later as I recovered from the shock last week. I am fine today and the next time I need to travel that area, it will be even better. Now, about Part B of My Day 9 (attached): I watched the video 5 times and made notes in my workbook (see it attached). I created a quick cheat sheet too. OMG, my 30-second video assignment turned into a 6-minute, 14-second video that I edited down to 2 minutes, 12 seconds, then 1 minute, 53 seconds, and now 1 minute, 46 seconds. I worked on it for 3 hours! I decided to stop there. That's still too long. I'm being a perfectionist again! I know I wasn't supposed to edit the video (I think), but I did. I discovered something--I am too wordy!

Quick Question First: Since I have pivoted my niche, I am wondering should I go ahead and start creating and publishing videos for this new channel. I was waiting for the time in the challenge when Alexa tells us to go ahead and create a video, but I don't know when that is. I plan to redo the 30-second video that ended up being a 1min43sec. What do y'all think? Okay, Day 11! I am liking this one. Creating Thumbnails and Titles. (Clearly the editing portion is stressful, but I will get pass that, lol.) I love how Alexa breaks these two down. I always needed to know the "science" of Thumbnails and Titles and she has it all here in this Day 11. For my background, it will be light against my dark complexion. The focal point will be the gift basket I am designing. It always wins whether I want to be focus or not (and I do not). However, I will be in the frame of my video. I will be showing all of those expressions based on the title and thumbnail and what I am trying to convey in the video. They all should match. For my thumbnail sizes, I have been using "thumbs up," which shows what my thumbnails look like on mobile, tv, desktop, tablet, playlist, etc. There are other tools out there that do the same, but this is the one I learned first and use. I believe, from what I have observed, my Thumbnail is the "What" and my title is the "Why": -"What" (thumbnail) is in the video, and -"Why" (title) my viewer should click. Did I get that right? That's what I have noticed even when looking at the playlist for this challenge. My thumbnail-title combination will not be clickbait! I hate clickbait. It's like lying! Deception! I hate lies!!! I've made all these mistakes except repeating the text of the title in the thumbnail. Guilty😅! I learned early on that this was a no-no. For this lesson, I will be spending a lot more time on creating my title and thumbnails no matter how long it takes before my video is uploaded. My key is going to be batch producing which I know is coming in a future lesson of this challenge.

As I was editing the video, which was so exciting for me, I discovered a major flaw! I discovered that I left out a major gift item in my gift basket. Sooo... I stopped editing and planned my strategy to insert the gift item. That was not working. Slightly disappointed, I decided to open it up and redesign it, including filming it of course. This happens often in designing in general and in gift basket design so this is a perfect lesson to film for my audience. They need to know everything will not be perfect and what to do to correct a mistake. Additionally, I am in Holy Week and Resurrection honoring mode🙏🏾🙌🏾✝️. It has been a personal tradition, so I pause (selah) to honor this period and this Holiday. I wanted to rush and get the editing done, publish, and share with you all; but it is not ready. And this is not the time to rush, among other life happenings. If it is not finished in time for this holiday (technically, it is too late), I will keep it for next year and start to plan my design for the next holiday--Mother's Day among other videos. I also do not want this to stunt my progress with the challenge, so I will continue. Just wanted to give you an update. And will see me in the comments of your posts here as I move on and finish my start on Day 12. Side Info: -Current Niche: Teaching Gift Basket Biz Startups -Pivoted from: Recovery from Narcissistic Abuse Accountability Tags: @Yvette Bowlin @Jenny Sharratt @Dajana K. @Michael LeJeune @Cam F @Travel Gran @Jaye Brunner @Eddi Pinegar @Adam Tinkoff @Ricardo Solomons @Dawn Ponsford @Monika Astara Murphy @Andy Asher r @Deb D @Laura Niebauer @Cat PInegar