The Joy of Building From Scratch

If you ask 99% of creators, they will tell you they’re afraid to start from scratch. Staring at nothing does not help them jog their creativity.

For better or worse, my brain works differently. Let me explain.

I LOVE to Start New Things

All my life, I have been starting new things. Some call this curiosity, and others call it Shiny Object Syndrome. The fact is, I was never inhibited from ‘staring’ at the blank page.

I found myself creating new websites throughout my adult life until I finally started the first meaningful one in 2011. That website was called Alive2Play, and it was where I got my first taste of what a publishing website could look like.

Somehow, I recruited around 12 volunteer writers who understood the site was new and not making money. They were okay with offering volunteer work in exchange for their name appearing in an article on the website.

Facebook was still prominent in 2011, even though Instagram had been introduced the year before. Twitter was also around, but not as big as Facebook.

When that website started to fizzle out because those volunteer writers had lives to tend to, I felt a pang of guilt from not “making it.”

This website was just another site on my long list of abandoned properties.

That first failure taught me to be more thoughtful about my decisions. Yet, I made the same decision last week when I upended my entire YouTube channel.

I’m Not Afraid to Tear Down Existing Work

I created my YouTube channel in September 2020. It took two years to monetize, and even then, progress felt sporadic.

I interviewed only a handful of people, and the interview was also based on a TV show. I didn’t consider interviewing more people and transforming it into a consistent podcast.

Was it really a surprise then that we only grew to about 3800 subscribers by 2023?

In 2024, I made a mistake and paid for YouTube promotions to grow instead of working harder to attract more viewers. I chose the easy way out: to pour money into the problem. That was wrong. I did not have a cohesive community, and many of the viewers were coming and going.

I effectively destroyed my recommendation system by paying for YouTube Promotions inside YouTube Studio. I had many subscribers from all over the world who didn’t watch the videos.

Last week, I privated every video on that channel except one explaining that we’re moving to a new channel and started republishing all interviews on a different channel.

As of this writing, I have 67 subscribers, and the videos I’m publishing on the new channel are getting the same number of views as those on the old channel.

I’m excited to see how this experiment goes.

It’s a Slippery Slope If You’re Not Careful

It’s easy to throw away something you built and start afresh. But beware. Building is hard.

I simmered on this decision for a few weeks before making it. In the past, I have quickly abandoned projects in favor of new ones.

There will be days when it feels tough and that you aren’t progressing. But remember: growth takes time. It took me two years to monetize the podcast.

If you plan to abandon something, give it the respect it deserves by not making an impulse decision.

What About You?

What are you building? What are you tearing down? Let me know in the comments below or by replying to this email).