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I uploaded my first YouTube video! A week as a full-time indie hacker

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I've been thinking about starting a YouTube channel for a very long time already. But I always found an excuse on why I cannot do it right now:

  • Having not enough time
  • Having nothing interesting to share
  • Being not brave enough? 😅

But this month I finally decided to get started and make starting a channel my top priority for this month. So I wrote these two goals into my monthly plan:

  • Upload my first video on YouTube
  • Get my first 50 subscribers

So I got started working on my first video.

It was a lot more complicated and challenging than I thought. I had to learn a lot of new things, like how to film, to begin with. I managed to resist the temptation to buy a ton of expensive equipment and started just recording with my iPhone!

Then I had to figure out how to get decent audio. I also just used my iPhone for that. Unfortunately, my office has a very bad echo, so the first recording sounded terrible. But I got creative and ended up recording the audio in my wardrobe which sounded decent enough 😅😂

Overcoming my perfectionism...

My biggest challenge though was to overcome my perfectionism. I struggle with this in everything I do. The same problem made it super hard to launch my first app back then because I couldn't stop polishing it. But if I learned one thing from you here on IH it's to "JUST SHIP IT!". So I did exactly that!

About this video series

This first video is part of a series where I will build a brand new app and I show you everything I do like my research, planning the app, designing and programming it as well as the launch and the marketing afterward. Everything I do I learned with my first app Avocation which I launched in 2019 and recently hit 1 million downloads. The video is about my first week and everything I do before I start coding.

You can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4l8e7pJCsA

It was a ton of work getting this video out but it was already totally worth it and I am excited to create a lot more videos!!

  1. 3

    Cool video!
    I was wondering how you learned app designing as a programmer. Any advice for new IHs?

    1. 2

      Thank you :)

      Actually, before I started programming many years ago I was more into design. So I am doing all kinds of design things for quite some time already. But for app design in particular I would recommend you to check out the Human Interface Guidelines by Apple where you can already learn a lot about what to look out for.

      And a lot of practice. You can start by redesigning Apps that you know or just creating concepts for ideas you have, even if they might not be a valid product you can still practise your skills doing that!

      Also, I love getting inspired by creations on Dribbble so you might want to look around there too :)

      1. 1

        Thanks for you advice. It means a lot to me.
        Happy coding!

  2. 3

    Love the concept and production. Instant subscribe, I'm already inspired to build something new. Congrats on starting the channel.

    1. 1

      Thank you, that means a lot to me 🙇‍♂️🙌

  3. 3

    what a fun video!! keep going!

  4. 3

    Congrats on launching 🚀

  5. 3

    Great video! Just subscribed your channel 👍🏻

  6. 2

    Very nice video - congratulations!

  7. 2

    Hey David -
    Wow - what a super cool video and idea for a channel.

    I loved it. Especially the way you illustrated your thinking with your sketching. And for all of us who are developing and growing products - a really great inspiration for persevering!

    I really look forward to where you take this next!

    Thanks!

    1. 1

      Thanks again Marko, thats my goal with these videos. I want to inspire more people to work on their ideas and give them some ideas on how they can get started 🙌

  8. 2

    Awesome, David!

    Proud of you for getting your first video out and for getting over your perfectionism! (The quality is way higher than what I expected after you mentioned you didn't aim for perfection.)

    Also just finished watching the other Jack Conte video you sent me. Really good one. Thanks again!

    1. 2

      Thanks Niklas! Now you know at which impossible things I am aiming at and why I struggle with perfectionism 😅

      Glad you enjoyed the video I shared with you, thanks again for the ones you sent me earliert :)

      1. 2

        Now you know at which impossible things I am aiming at

        I can imagine. :D

        Maybe it's reassuring that the comments on this IH post prove that you can be easy on yourself. :)

  9. 2

    Loved the video! Very clean and simple editing 💪 sehr stark

    1. 2

      Thank you Daniel, I appreciate it! :)

  10. 2

    Great work, David. I really enjoyed your video, and the quality is superb! Love the way you approach your idea as well. Keep up the great work, looking forward to the next vid. ;) Oh, and btw, the terrace is just 😍!

    1. 2

      Thank you Borislav, I really appreciate that!
      And yeah I love our terrace too, still waiting for warmer temperatures here in Austria though 😄

  11. 1

    A very interesting video. I also want to create videos for my friends. But I ran into a problem in converting. Can someone help me.

    1. 2

      I am aware of such difficulties. I think you should read the blog on https://movavi.io/ and it will become clear to you how to solve this problem. I was having difficulty editing audio in a video file. Now I can edit it however I want.

      1. 1

        Thanks for the information.

  12. 3

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

    1. 1

      Glad you liked it Tom and thank you for your suggestion! 🙂

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