I used to believe a full-time job meant the end of creative freedom.That once you traded your time for a paycheck, you’d have nothing left to give your art.But two weeks into my new job, I finally feel free to create again.Because when your creativity doesn’t have to pay your bills you stop optimizing it.You stop begging the algorithm for validation.You start making the weird stuff again.In this video, I talk about what it really means to protect your passion— why I’m keeping both my career and my creative work, and why I think “work for money, create for yourself” might be the most honest version of creative freedom we have.This is about the three questions I think a lot of us avoid asking. About why I keep both a 25-year career and a YouTube channel. And about what creative freedom actually means when you stop trying to monetize everything.If you've ever wondered whether you should quit your job to create full-time, or felt guilty for keeping both—this one's for you.

Five days ago, I made a terrible decision.I asked everyone to insult me in the comments. Roast me, I said. Destroy me. Tell me everything you've been holding back.Then I read them out loud in a calming, meditative voice — like I was guiding you through a forest made entirely of my own inadequacy.This is what happens when burnout meets content strategy. Featuring:🙏🏻 Comparisons to discount Chad Kroeger🙏🏻 Brutal honesty about my aggressively average rapping🙏🏻 Philosophical questions about pots, pans, and grooming habitsYou tried to hurt me, but you'll never come close to the damage done by my own internal dialogue.NamaStay

For 20 years people told me I have a calming voice. For 20 years I did nothing with it. Then I got laid off twice, started a YouTube channel with no plan, and let the comments section run my life. Now they're telling me to make meditation videos. So here we are.This is the story of how I'm finally using my voice (after wasting two decades), why I had to make a joke meditation first (K-pop photocard addicts, you know who you are), and how a single compliment about being "handsome in real life" has sent me into an existential spiral about monetizing my face.Also: I'm blaming all of you when this fails.CHAPTERS:0:00 - Intro: Taking Career Advice from YouTube Comments1:00 - How This Channel Started (Two Layoffs, Zero Plan)1:50 - Comment #1: "You Have a Calming Voice" (20 Years Ignored)2:57 - Why I Had to Make the Joke Version First4:40 - Comment #2: "You're Handsome in Real Life!!" (Thanks, Miss Poofball)6:01 - Discussing Liability (I'm Blaming You When This Fails)7:38 - What Should I Make? (Tell Me in Comments)9:06 - Final Thoughts: Let's Start This Dumpster FireTHE MEDITATION TROJAN HORSE VIDEOhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sAfYUnene4THE BIG QUESTION:What's more valuable: a meditation that relaxes you, or a meditation that makes you feel seen?Drop your answer in the comments AND tell me what kind of meditation content I should actually make:- Box Breathing?- Sleep Meditations?- Anxiety Validation Meditations?- Guided Visualizations?- Something else entirely?You've been running this channel so far. Let's see where you take it next.Special thanks to MsPoofball for the compliment.

Welcome to your emotional support session for collectors in denial.This is a guided meditation for people who just bought their eighth version of the same album "for manifesting purposes." It will not cure your photocard addiction. It will not help you explain to your family why you own 37 identical rectangles of the same face.But for approximately 6 minutes, you may feel slightly less insane about it.🧘‍♀️ In this 28-minute session, we’ll:– Breathe in acceptance and exhale financial responsibility– Perform a soothing "body scan" for thumb cramps and eye strain from scrolling resale sites– Visualize your "mind palace," which, unfortunately, is just a floor covered in photocards– Practice saying: "I have a problem. I have no intention of fixing it."This meditation is not about healing.It’s about acceptance — specifically, accepting that you’re too far gone and honestly? That’s beautiful.💬 Comment below with your photocard confession.🪷 Breathe in delusion.🪷 Breathe out logic.🪷 And remember: acknowledging it is step one.(There is no step two.)DISCLAIMER: This is comedy/satire mixed with actual meditation techniques (according to the 4 seconds of googling I did). If you genuinely feel your collecting has become unmanageable, that's valid and there are real resources available... I assume 🤷‍♂️.

But somewhere between subscribers 15 and 14,000, I realized it didn't feel like I was creating.And anytime I tried to make something original? I froze.Then I rewatched three videos — Mark Ronson’s TED Talk, Everything Is a Remix, and The Great Art of Interpretation — and it felt like someone had quietly removed the wall I’d been smashing my head against for a year.This video is the result.It’s not original.But it is mine.Includes literal references to:→ Mark Ronson’s TED Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3TF-hI7zKc→ Everything is a Remix by Kirby Ferguson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9RYuvPCQUA→ The Great Art of Interpretation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hQLp2Cl49QIf you make music, movies, videos, art, blogs, code, comics, shirts, zines, or literally anything creative... this is for you.And yes — this video is a remix of those 3 videos.Call it a video essay. Call it a creative confession.Either way, this is me showing up.

🚨 FINAL WARNING 🚨 If you’re thinking about starting a music reaction channel… don’t. Unless you enjoy emotional whiplash, unsolicited dissertations, and being held hostage by people with Spotify playlists and zero chill.Yes - I've only been a music reactor for 9 short months, but I’ve read more YouTube comments than anyone should — and after filtering out the all caps praise, death threats and weird flirting, I’ve identified an unhinged cast of 7 personality disasters who the poor reactors have to ignore, avoid and hide from.This is NOT a guide. It’s a psychological crime scene.

I’ve been hiding things in my YouTube videos.Easter eggs. Background chaos. Fake products. Real meltdowns.And this is the part where I admit: none of them worked.This video is a breakdown — not just of my “creative process” (if you can call it that), but of my actual mental stability.From Baby Shark lyrics to a toaster cameo that went completely unnoticed… to a fake band called Trinity the Goat that somehow became the most honest thing I’ve ever created.There are layers. Most of them stupid. Some of them sad.All of them... me.💀 Featuring:❌ A Rick Roll wrapped as a Christmas gift❌ A Beethoven reaction no one asked for❌ BurntCrust™, the emotionally unstable toaster❌ CrashBop™, the music app that ignores your feelings❌ A thumbnail with a waffle reflected in my eyeball (yes, really)❌ And the ghost of a band that never existed but still haunts me

Why do we watch total strangers cry to music we already sobbed to five jobs ago?Because we’re not just fans.We’re emotionally outsourced gremlins on a group spiral.And this? This is our meeting.In this video, I expose the unhinged psychology behind music reaction addiction — from the parasocial cult vibes to the sacred stank-face rituals, to that one guy with the ring light who now owns my entire playlist and probably my cat. (He doesn’t know. Please don’t tell him.)This video is based on REAL viewer comments from my channel, and let me be clear:You people are not okay.And neither am I.Which is why we belong together.

Well, this might be the dumbest thing I've ever done on this channel... and that's saying A LOT. 😅 I asked my Discord community to send me their most brutal questions, then sat down to interview myself like some kind of masochistic content creator. What started as a fun idea quickly turned into an existential crisis about my entire YouTube journey.You know me - I don't hold back, even when I'm the target. But honestly? Some of these fan questions hit WAY harder than I expected. We're talking about everything from my music reactions to my questionable life choices, and let me tell you, being your own worst critic while 14,000 people watch is... an experience. 💀Fair warning: this gets REAL. Like, uncomfortably real. There were moments during filming where I genuinely questioned if I should just delete this channel and become a barista or something. But hey, that's what you signed up for when you subscribed to this chaos, right?If you've ever wondered what happens when someone with zero filter interviews themselves with questions from people who know exactly how to push their buttons, this is your answer. Spoiler alert: it's not pretty, but it's definitely honest.

🎬 From burning skate video DVDs in the early 2000s to shooting commercials for Target and Home Depot - Dallas Currie's journey proves you don't need film school to make it as a Director of Photography! In this raw conversation, my longtime friend Dallas breaks down exactly how he built a six-figure freelance career through pure hustle, self-teaching, and strategic networking.🔥 What You'll Learn:• How Dallas went from miniDV camcorder to major brand campaigns• The exact gear setup that pays for itself through rentals• Why getting laid off during COVID was the BEST thing for his career• His blueprint for landing clients through relationships (not cold pitching)• The truth about freelance DP rates and how to price yourself• Why he travels cross-country in a gear-loaded van instead of flying💡 This isn't your typical "follow your dreams" fluff - Dallas gives you the real numbers, the actual struggles, and the specific strategies that took him from broke to fully booked. Whether you're shooting music videos, commercials, or just trying to level up your visual storytelling, this conversation will change how you think about building a creative career.🎯 Perfect for: Aspiring cinematographers, freelance filmmakers, content creators ready to go pro, and anyone who wants to turn their creative passion into serious income.Check out his incredible video portfolio at: https://www.DallasCurrie.com

I was stuck in a creative rut that felt impossible to escape from. Then I picked up Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" and everything shifted. This isn't just another book review - it's the raw story of how one legendary producer's wisdom pulled me out of creative burnout and back into the flow I'd been desperately searching for.In this video, I break down the key insights that hit me hardest from Rubin's book, especially his concept of that primal creative instinct we all feel but often ignore. For me, that pull led to something I never expected - this YouTube channel. If you've ever felt that deep urge to create but didn't know how to honor it, or if you're feeling creatively blocked and lost right now, this might be exactly what you need to hear.I share how Rubin's approach to embracing uncertainty, finding your authentic creative voice, and treating yourself as an instrument for creativity completely changed my perspective on making art and content.

🍰✂️ Meet Jade - the creative genius who said "screw traditional paths" and mastered TWO completely different art forms! From dropping out of university to becoming a pastry chef at elite restaurants AND an origami artist featured at Art Basel Miami Beach, Jade's journey proves you don't need to follow the rules to create something extraordinary. In this raw conversation, she breaks down exactly how she built dual creative careers through pure passion, strategic learning, and refusing to choose between the things she loves.🔥 This isn't your typical "follow your dreams" story - Jade gives you the real struggles of working in high-pressure kitchens, the vulnerability of being Asian in predominantly white spaces, and how she turned childhood origami into commissioned art pieces for weddings and festivals. Whether you're a creative feeling stuck in traditional expectations or someone juggling multiple passions, this conversation will change how you think about building an unconventional career.