One of my goals when we embarked on our nomadic lifestyle in January was to start a YouTube channel. Sounds pretty simple, right? You shoot some video, upload it to YouTube, and people watch. How hard could it be?

But the reality – especially if you are trying to create good content that people will want to see – is much, much different. I spent more hours than I can count trying to get my channel set up, from figuring out how to do it (pretty easy), to coming up with a name for the channel that will resonate (a bit harder), to clearing that name, or some variation of it, with a domain service, Instagram, Facebook, and X (a near impossibility). After many days of trying different variations of this and, let’s face it, with a fair amount of assistance from ChatGPT, I landed on “Finding My Retirement.”

To me, this is a good name for what I have in mind, because while the channel is clearly about retirement, “finding” evokes both a search and travel, which is also a big part of the journey (pun intended). I know I want to figure out a different kind of life, and I’m pretty confident that (at least for now) that means spending most of my time internationally. And as I embark upon this journey – both figuratively and literally – I wanted to document it.

Thus, this blog and, on a somewhat larger scale, a YouTube channel. But guess what? It turns out that there are a few skills you need to be a successful YouTuber, and I hit the road with almost none of them. Let’s just walk through it quickly. You need to:

1. Be a screen writer. Nobody is going to hand you a script to your YouTube videos. (Now that I think about it, this isn’t necessarily true any more, because AI is writing a lot more full blown video scripts for creators. But I don’t think that’s my style.). And this isn’t an adapted screenplay; it’s an original. So you need to come up with the concept, or story, first, and then write it.
2. Be a director. Now you need to plan out the video. What scenes does it require? What format will you use for your “A Roll”? And what “B Roll” will you need?
3. Be a location scout. Where will you film the video, and are there limitations on where you want to film, due to lighting, sound, crowds, regulations, etc.?
4. Be an actor. Once the video is planned, both from a story-telling and a directing and a locational perspective, someone has to create it. And guess what, you’re now the “talent,” whether you have any talent or not. George Clooney is not going to swing by to play the role of you in your video.
5. Be a videographer. Guess what, you don’t just have to be in front of the camera. You have to be behind it as well. What equipment will you use? What camera settings? Do you need an ND filter or artificial lighting?
6. Be a video editor. Great. You got a bunch of footage, probably five times what you actually want/need. Now you need to figure out how to edit the video into a seamless story, blending the A roll with the B roll, and adding stock footage to fill in any gaps.
7. Be a sound tech. You need to make sure that the sound that gets recorded is of good quality, that’s a given. But you also need to blend the audio from multiple video streams, along with background music and sound effects. Do you have background music and sound effects? Do you know where to get them?
8. Be a graphics designer and special effects master. Want cool titles or effects in your video? It’s time to start creating them. Sure, you can purchase plug-ins and packages from others, but (a) that costs money that you may or may not have, and (b) you have to understand what a plug-in or package is, how to install it, and how to use it.

It’s a lot. Really. A lot.

If you’re like me, and you have virtually no experience in any of these fields when you start your channel, you have a lot of learning to do. The good news is that it’s easier than ever to learn all of the things you need to know. As always, Google is your friend. But today, things have shifted more and more to AI, and I’ve suddenly become close friends with whoever “ChatGPT” is.

And then there are all the other fantastic creators already making videos and uploading them (ahhh, yes, that’s another one, you have to figure out all the settings to render and upload your masterpiece so that it can get on YouTube). Chances are that if there is something specific you need to know – how do I quickly resize an image so that it fills only part of the screen in Davinci Resolve ? – there’s a great chance that someone has created a video showing you exactly that, in painstaking detail.

But nonetheless, it takes a long, long time, and it feels like the learning curve is just about straight up.

Still, here we are, and exactly one month after landing in Brazil for the first time, I’m posting my first ever YouTube video. Sure, I probably spent the better part of 100 hours getting to 11 minutes of less-than-polished final product, but it’s done. And it’s up there for everyone to see. (Please, please, someone watch it!)

I will be posting more about the actual content of my first – and hopefully second, third and fourth – videos soon, but for now, I just thought I’d rant a bit about the process, and invite you to check out the first video for Finding My Retirement, Crafting a Smarter Way to Retire Abroad:

If you like the video, please click the like button, subscribe to my channel, and turn on notifications so you’ll be alerted when we post new content.

If you don’t like the video, please wait a few days before complaining to me about it. I’ll be happy to listen to your concerns . . . just not today.

Thanks for understanding. – Rick