I know a lot of people may read this blog and watch this video and think (pfewhat? it took him a year to get to 100 subscribers?) That's NOTHING, and it took him a year?

Yep. And I'm proud of it.

Here's why.

1. I put out an average of one video per day. While doing my other full time jobs, running a successful company, building an amazing team, and being a great husband and father of two phenomenal kids. Kids that I actually know well and spend time with. And helping my clients grow their businesses.

2. I went through many different ways of capturing and editing video. Some days I'd record myself on my phone in a meeting using a case that sticks against the wall. Some days I'd record myself using my laptop (sometimes in a meeting, sometimes sitting looking at the camera). I did this / continue to do this, all while actually working 60-80 hours per week.

Sometimes I'd use Instagram stories as the main way of capturing the video content (and editing the video content) and I'd send it directly to YouTube (vertical and everything).

Sometimes I'd be driving in my car, sometimes I'd just have finished a run and be super sweaty and gross, sometimes I'd be walking, sometimes I'd be sitting at my desk feeling gangster and purposely bumping rap music into the background.

3. I'm fully aware of the fact that the video quality and audio quality isn't always the best. I've moved from Nashville, TN to Valencia, Spain, and run a business of 10 people that are a fully distributed senior level remote work team. We all work from home. Sometimes there is now my dryer in the background. Sometimes there is city background noise. Sometimes kids screaming, often music playing.

I now like to shoot some of them around the city, so the audio quality isn't always going to be the best, and I've had some people point out to me that it's "Busch League" that I'm sometimes wearing a backwards baseball cap and a "dirty t-shirt," but as I point out in this video, it doesn't matter to me.

The reality is, I love making this content. It fuels and fulfills me, and it makes me a better person, and a better digital strategist and business owner. It challenges me to provide even more value for our clients and our team.

Our team strives to be the most knowledgable, friendly and easy to work with. That's just us. And these videos are just me.

I'm never going to stress over getting the lighting, audio and video perfect, and I'm never going to change my outfit for the camera. Sorry, Joe Walsh (some guy who commented on my boosted Facebook post) below.

You get what you get.

And while I care that people listen and watch, and I appreciate feedback, know that I strive to be more helpful than perfectly entertaining.

As I do this more, it will get better, but there will be some days the audio sucks, or there are imperfections somewhere in the video.

So, now that I've gotten that off my chest and made it perfectly clear why I'm so freaking proud and thankful of my 100 subscribers (laugh or smirk if you want - it doesn't bother me), let me show you how to change your YouTube URL from something scrambly like youtube.com/c/a3ad32oiadasena32013eaqeksj to something like youtube.com/paulhickey.

Step 1: Get to 100 subscribers.

Step 2: Click on your Avatar on the top right. Select "Settings" from the dropdown menu.

Step 3: Click Advanced Settings on the Left (bottom).

Step 4: Find "You're eligible for a custom URL. Claim it here. Click "here."

Step 5: Set your Custom URL.

Thanks for reading, watching and listening, and have a great day!

KEEP MARKETING!

Paul Hickey, Founder / CEO / Lead Strategist at Data Driven Design, LLC has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.