Last Year’s Goal

Last year I told myself I was going to make a YouTube Video every week (52 Videos total) for the entire year of 2022.

I ended the year with 18 videos.

What happened? Well, mostly life happened. I think the failure I experienced in publishing consistently was partially due to not eliminating as many roadblocks as possible.

In May of last year (2022), my wife and I bought a house. We also found out earlier in the year around January that we were having child number 2. I had come to the realization that my system of making videos wasn’t conducive to life events. The reason for the was because how I was making YouTube videos required too much effort.

We moved to our new house in June, and this required almost all of my energy to clean up the old house, move in everything to the new house, coordinate home insurance, setup electricity, work a job still, etc.

It was too much of a load for me to do all on my own. I also don’t enjoy making YouTube videos as much as some other people do. While I think I’m talented and skilled at this, sometimes I DREAD making these videos because I know how frustrating they can be something when something wasn’t recording correctly, or my delivery didn’t sound great.

I think the failure I experienced in publishing consistently was partially due to not eliminating as many roadblocks as possible.

Where Did I Fail?

Failure Number 1: My goal was to make 52 YouTube videos. I only made 18.

I think I failed here because I made too lofty of a goal and didn’t take into consideration the real life constraints of having kid number 2 and buying a house. I put more pressure on myself than necessary.

Failure Number 2: I didn’t create a systematic process that was easy to follow and was easy to accomplish every week.

My video editing process was very “process” driven. Because of this, I took up a lot more time than I should have making videos. This usually forced me to choose between my time making content and my time doing other things.

Failure Number 3: I failed to enjoy the process.

To be frank, I don’t love how time consuming making content can be, especially just for the sake of creating content. I don’t take pride in making mediocre content, and often times I felt like pumping out content consistently was hurting the quality of the content.

I also didn’t find myself enjoying talking just about music production. This is a hobby for myself, but this wasn’t something I felt like I could talk about every single day because it felt like a chore.

Failure Number 4: I created a job that wasn’t fun for myself, and therefore lost interest.

This is similar to failure 3, but it very quickly turned from doing this because I’m good at it to doing this because I HAVE to do it.

MacoTheProducer was a good idea, but it really should be “Malachi Corliss”

MacoTheProducer came out of needing an artist name to put my music works under. It sounded much cooler as a stage name than “welcome to the stage: Malachi Corliss”.

However, because of this, I forced myself into a corner where my content was “music related” only. The reality is, this is a very small percentage of my life and very small percentage of my professional and internet facing career.

Did I Succeed at All? What Did I Learn?

There were a few great positives this past year.

YouTube channel gained the most followers ever in 1 year. We gained 640 followers in 1 year which was 170 more than the previous year of 470. The channel now has over 2000 subscribers, which is still amazing for me to think about.
I published the most videos I have ever posted in a year. And several of these are very high quality.
I learned that I DON’T like running an audio production only YouTube channel.
I learned a lot of lessons, and have a better idea of how I want to tackle 2023.

What Am I Doing Different This Year?

This year, I am changing my goal. Instead of worrying about making a certain number of YouTube videos, posting enough times on Instagram, making enough tweets, etc…. I’m planning on just writing…. I am planning on writing an article every single week day, very similiar to the one you are reading right now.

I feel like the easy way for me to focus on the question “what do I know that others may not?” is to write my thoughts down every day about the things I’m doing.

I am planning on writing an article every single weekday.

What Content am I Focusing On?

Right now, I have a lot of different things that I’m interested in.

Computers and IT - This is what I do for a living, and this isn’t changing anytime soon.
Fitness - I personally have been working on losing weight and working on a healthier weight and physique.
Notion - I use this every day to put write my ideas down, but it also runs my website, helps me write documents
Music - I have realized that this is a hobby, and I don’t NEED to make this a career.
Myself and branding myself - How do I sell “Malachi Corliss” as a one of a kind that can offer you something others cannot?
Apple vs. Windows - I have this debate with something almost everyday… Why don’t I just talk about it more publicly?
Minimalism - Living with less/essentialism. I consider myself an “aspiring” minimalist.

The Plan…. Final Thoughts

I want to focus on creating the content, not PRODUCING the content. I already know I can make a video, make a song, take a picture, etc. It’s the ideas I want to capture better.

This will feel like a blog at first, but it the first discipline I am making this year. I will write one of these every single week day, short or long.

Once a month, I will look at the articles I’m written, and consider making one of them into a piece of content to publish on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok (blegh) and Twitter.

I know some days this will feel like a chore, but I think this will be the easiest thing for me to do starting in 2023. I will talk more about my plans to tackle this in the future, but that is all for today.

If you aren’t already, consider bookmarking https://www.malachicorliss.com and looking for other articles coming your way every single day!

Seeya tomorrow,

Malachi Corliss