Channel Update

Transcript

Welcome to the Hobby Nomicon. I wanted to do a quick mini channel update. Nothing crazy or too serious, but it’s been 154 days of making videos every day—kind of making stuff every day, which is a big part of what I want to talk about. I just saw 144 subscribers. Almost a subscriber a day. That’s crazy. I never thought I’d even get more than five subscribers.

The Vision Going Forward

What I want to talk about is a bit more about me, the vision for the future of what I’m going to be doing here, and what I want to be doing. I feel like I’ve kind of lost my way—not in a bad way, but I just really like playing Kingdom Death. I didn’t ever want this channel to be a Kingdom Death channel or have KDM take over the creative and hobby side of things.

So here’s the plan: I’m going to post one more Kingdom Death video on this channel. When I post that one, I’ll have set up a second channel that’s all Kingdom Death, all the time. I’m going to keep the Kingdom Death stuff off this channel because this is my channel to make cool stuff, be creative, and do the hobby side of things.

I’m also going to make a third channel dedicated entirely to Warmachine. My goal with that one is to focus on box art painting tutorials using Army Painter Speed Paints because they’re the cheapest and best paints I’ve used. They’re very affordable and available everywhere. I think those will be the best bet for getting as many people to have painted Warmachine armies as possible, with maybe the occasional battle report.

How Daily Vlogging Changed Everything

I started this because I was really inspired by Trent and his daily hobby blog. I thought if I paint every day and commit to posting a video every day, it doesn’t really matter if anybody watches it—if it gets me actually doing it and participating in the hobby. And that’s what it’s done, but it’s done so much more for me. Things I can’t even put into words. Life is so much better from posting a video a day. It sounds crazy and silly, but doing this has improved almost every single other aspect of my life. Don’t worry about being afraid of editing—just post it and get yourself showing up every day to make art and create things.

Getting Personal

I turned 36. I probably look old for 36, especially since I’m super bald and gray where I do have hair. I look back at the last 20 years of my life and I’ve spent that entire time building businesses for other people.

My son is also turning four this year, which is a big thing for me. The day we found out my wife was pregnant with him—he’s my second kid, I have four kids total—I got sober. I was a very heavy drinker. I haven’t been this sober since I was a kid, and I feel like a kid again. It’s weird to look back at all those years in between. It was almost like a different life, and now I have a second chance to start over even though I’m technically a boomer now.

The Corporate America Wake-Up Call

I’ve been in business development for 20 years, doing things to make other people more money. I got lucky with an internship at 16 and went right into corporate America. I started my first business at 18—a hookah lounge. Not ready. Business partners were not ready. Didn’t work out. Immediately started a second business with partners. Crazy stuff happened. Didn’t work out. Swore off business partners forever. Nobody should ever have a business partner.

I worked my way up to Fortune 100, as high as I could go for my age. Then, two months before my wife gave birth to my son, I got fired. The next paycheck would have been a life-changing amount in invested shares. I’d been working from 3 AM to 11 PM every single day because I was managing not just the American marketing team but the European, APAC, and South American teams too. Sleeping about four hours a day for a year and a half straight, getting great results. And when it was time to pay me, they let me go so I wouldn’t be able to sell my shares.

That immediately disillusioned me to corporate America. That’s not a one-company thing—that’s what happens to everybody who’s an outsider hustling their way up. Right before you get there, they kick you back out.

Building My Own Path

That experience made me decide I’m never going back to work for somebody else. For six months after getting fired, my wife gave birth, we were paying out of pocket for childbirth in America (which is terrible), and I wiped out the savings while figuring out the next step.

I started my own marketing consulting agency. After six months of making no money, I had the most successful year of my life—making twice as much as I’d ever made before. I was working those same insane hours, but for myself. Then we had twins, and I restarted and reset, pretty much back to zero.

I’m still nowhere near where I was, but we’re paying the bills and living life. The twins are getting old enough that I don’t have to help around the house as much, and I’m super lucky to be able to be around for all the kids’ childhoods.

Finding Purpose Through Art

This whole experience totally changed my worldview about what was important. I’ve been kind of trying to find myself again for the past four years. This channel has really shown me that maybe my life doesn’t have to be what I thought it could be. Maybe my life can be one grounded in art, being an artist, making things, and sharing that with the world.

I don’t really know what that looks like yet. I’m just formulating it in my head. But I know it starts by getting this channel back to just making stuff and seeing what comes out of that. I don’t want to be a YouTuber or an influencer, but I do want to make art, make videos, and share it with the world. You can’t prostitute the muse, you know?

What’s Coming

I’ve got the Infinity commission that should be finished this month. Next month, I’m doing a whole new army commission for somebody else. There’s also a project I’ve been working on that I’m making a video about. I’m excited for the future and I want to have it figured out before my birthday in a couple of weeks.

If you’re here, thank you. I appreciate you. This has been life-changing for me. I’m hoping to inspire people to just make stuff and maybe rethink the paradigms. I also acknowledge I’m in a pretty privileged spot to even be able to start thinking about those paradigms in the first place. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow with the return of making cool stuff.