End of April Check In With Me (#242)

End of April check in with me.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Hey, guys. It’s Fei Wu. And welcome back to Feisworld Podcast. I am so guilty because it’s been a while since I last recorded an episode and I really want to take this opportunity to give you an update as I’m recording this and soon to be launching this on Thursday, April 30. I really had the struggle at my desk just now thinking, my goodness, I have launched YouTube and today I released my very first course I’m so excited about, but at the same time I’m utterly exhausted.

First course on Skillshare and it is created for fitness and creative entrepreneurs on how they can use livestream such as a tool like Zoom or Skype or Facebook or Instagram. YouTube Live to have a business. It’s not just about having better sound quality, video quality and interaction with your audience anymore. I had a whole bunch of ideas on how they can actually build a business around it and I wanted to see the bigger picture so that they can start thinking about this. It’s not just for the pandemic once again, it’s about what happens after.

Because as it turned out, there was a not just a court’s article, there was a whole series of articles online floating around to say that, hey home, fitness is here to stay. So I did that course and definitely welcome you to check it out. I include a link in the description as well. I’m guilty because in the midst of all of these things and now sitting on my desk close to 10:30 p.m., I’ve been working really late and I know I have the privilege to do that. I don’t work at a hospital.

I have tremendous amount of respect for people who work in medicine, healthcare in general. And I have the privilege somehow right here to create video content, to record audios, to connect people, other people who are doing really somewhat fun things at home, to be able to connect with other human beings. But today I still had this guilt trip for myself to say I got to record something and I don’t want it just for it to just be something, you know? So I look at my stats and look at where Anchor has been and reminding myself that the reason why I switched my podcast hosting service from Lipson to Anchor is because I want more of a real connection, a real time connection, the ability for people to submit questions for them to interact with me real time here. And it just fascinating how Spotify is now having hundreds of millions of active users and acquired Anchor and I was really excited about all the possibilities.

At the very same time, I kind of put my podcast on hold because I discovered all the capabilities of YouTube and I want to be able to sort of connect and get my message out there. And if you are a creative entrepreneur and me rambling here, maybe thinking about the same things, I don’t know. But I think the truth behind freelancing and entrepreneurship is you don’t always know whether you’re hitting the mark. You don’t really know if you’re spending your time the right way, you’re being productive and what everything you do actually translate to. And I kind of had this epiphany of realizing that, yeah, we had our miniviral situation on YouTube, but not because not because I had a plan in place and somehow everything just, you know, fell in and did exactly what I wanted to do.

But I think one of the reasons that our video called Dance Livestream or how to Dance Livestream, I guess the title doesn’t really matter. It’s pretty obvious on my channel it’s the only one with close to 500 views after about a month and a half is because we were desperately solving a problem. And I think if you are a content creator listening to this and you’re thinking, when is my next breakthrough idea is going to arrive? Like I’ve been grinding this, whatever this is, podcasting or video content creation on YouTube, when am I ever going to get a break? I think your passion and your thoughts come first, of course.

But pay attention when you are trying to solve a problem, especially a topical, especially if it’s something that more than just you are thinking about that you notice there’s a bit of a trend going on from people who are close to you where at least there is enough information from a community that you’re familiar with, whether they are family and friends. But even bigger if it’s a community such as for me, I was a dance student going to many, many dance classes. And all of a sudden, due to the pandemic I lost on my teachers. So I was desperate to help them out, figure out what they can do next to bring their classes online. Sure, part of it is kind of selfish, but I mean, I think about the pandemic and its impact on people’s, not just fitness levels, but also mental stability and depression and struggles that you already had that’s going to be carried through the pandemic.

And now all of a sudden you’re in quarantine. You’re home with your family and your little kids. You got to homeschool your kids. You still have your career and all these struggles and puzzles that you haven’t figured out prior to the pandemic. So somehow I figure, you know what, dance was such an important outlet for me creatively, physically, so it must be solved for other people as well, not just me.

I think that desperation, I think not just the content itself. I think my energy, my vision also came through while producing that type of content. So I definitely welcome you to come check it out. Let me know if you feel the same. Again, this is not about, you know, check out my content.

It’s out there. Definitely will help you. I don’t know whether it’s going to be helpful for you or not, to be honest, maybe you have nothing. You are not interested in doing anything online, let alone livestream.

Man, do I even have a point? I am observing so many things about human behaviors and human psychology these days, watching people who are willing to change. Because the reality is, a lot of my viewers, consumers at the moment, are in their forty s, fifty s, some 50s, some of them even their sixty s and seventy s. And they were figuring things out at this lightning speed that’s just mind blowing, because, look, I’ve been working in digital marketing for over a decade. I’ve been using Zoom, the application, since 2017, when it first came out and was even a thing.

And now I’m teaching people in their sixty s and seventy s on how to do this. I’m showing my Taekuno instructor, who has been an instructor for 40 years now, how to use his phone to record videos from the Dojo where we train martial arts. I’m teaching him how to use the livestream, showing him and mentioning that what he needs to mention before, during, and after, like, be completely integrated with social media. And that is so fascinating to me, guys. And I want to really, you know, give me a thumbs up and send me a message if you’re seeing all the same transformations happening all over the place.

My partner’s mom is 81, who doesn’t live very far away. And a few weeks ago, when just we here in Massachusetts just got hit by the Pandemic, she asked me to come over and help her with some computer things I’m doing, like air quotation mark right now. And I showed up, and she was asking me that. She was telling me that she was using Zoom constantly to join her book clubs, a bunch of other social events that was very important in her life. I was just blown away, and all I had to do was install the Zoom client so that she can on her Mac, hit open, and being able to enter, like, a Zoom room number, it blew my mind.

So I think I urge everybody who’s listening to this, whether you are in digital marketing or otherwise, let’s reconsider. Let’s reenvision the possibilities. And, you know, because we have to we ought to maybe this is a really good exercise. I always say this to my clients, my friends and family. We’re not just doing this for the Pandemic.

Another Pandemic or some sort of event may hit us again where we’re stuck at home. So the unemployment rate is so high in Massachusetts right now. I think this morning I looked, it was something like some hundred and 50,000 people claimed unemployment. Meanwhile, my clients, some of my clients are getting hit. Some of them are speakers.

I have potential new clients are reaching out to me to say that they are speakers. They’re platform speakers. And guess what? Their gigs are gone, their events are not getting rescheduled, and someone is. Someone, meaning Gary Vee even said, in 2021, the likelihood of their income compared to prior to the Pandemic for 2021 is going to be about 20% for speakers.

So we all have to think about what we can do right now, creatively to understand whether it’s content creation, whether it’s scalable income, whether it’s us honing in on a skill that we haven’t even thought about. Maybe that’s photography, that’s safe for social distancing. It’s just you and an iPhone or you and your favorite camera. Maybe it’s about recording your voices. Maybe it’s you teaching other parents on how you homeschool your kids, things that you find that fascinates you.

One of my friends just started taking a drawing on her iPad really seriously, and I didn’t realize how talented she is. Just things really came alive prior to the Pandemic. She works as a project manager. We had no idea she was so artistic this way. Pay attention to what we are doing, what each other is doing.

Have those virtual dinners, get creative with Facebook time and Zoom and share some ideas. And I just really want to check in with you guys and give you like, a rundown of what I’ve been thinking about, what I’ve been up to. And sorry if this episode isn’t so polished, but allow me to maybe drop in every couple of weeks or so and let me know what you want to learn. Maybe it’s YouTube related. Maybe you want to hear another interview somehow.

Maybe you think I should repurpose my YouTube content right here on my podcast. I think the future of Faze world is fascinating. We have been a variety show, and I want to embrace that and not to fight it, whereas our YouTube channel is very focused, very niche to a specific audience. I have many more ideas I want to share. I want to start a new podcast.

But at the end of the day, I think I need to really juggle this balancing act to my best ability and to check in. And I so appreciate you guys. Whether you’re a new listener or you have listened to an episode or two before, let me know what they are. But thank you so much for being here, for tuning in. And please, please take care, stay home, take care of yourself and your family.

And let’s celebrate. Let’s continue to celebrate daily. Let’s do something together after the Pandemic as well. And I’ll see you very soon. Take care.

Bye.