Gadgetory

what's up guys Jays $0.02 here and I just going to want to have a chat with you here no bullet points no scrip no nothing just me talking so forgive me if this gets a bit fragmented and tends to kind of go all over the place which I tend to do I tend to ramble a lot and it's kind of difficult when I don't have some thing in front of me keeping me on track but that's kind of the point in today's video I want to talk about how the last year being self-employed in this YouTube space has actually been how its treated me some of the plans moving forward and basically just have a chat with you guys it's been a long time since we've done a video like this and I think it's time next time we had the talk so some of you may know the story already some of you may not so I'll keep it really short but in August 26 2012 I started my youtube channel on a dare because a friend of mine Josh aka holiday doc and the MLG Call of Duty Cod casting seen someone across one of my live streams I was doing to show close-quarters expansion for battlefield 3 to coconut monkey while he was on a family vacation it could be home to play it I had one viewer it was coconut my detective technically - I was watching so it said - but anyway Josh happened to stumble into one of my streams and thought I was hilarious and entertaining and he said I should start a YouTube channel and I was like dude that's stupid who the hell would watch a YouTube channel about computer stuff I mean I know there was that that that Linus guy out there but I know he clearly bought it all of his subs but after spending a couple months convincing me I finally decided to go ahead and do it basically like I said on a dare fast-forward now three and a half years later it's my job so obviously when I started my channel on August 26th and then fast forward to April 2015 when I actually left my job in between there I was constantly asked by followers and fans of the channel if I would ever quit my job for YouTube and something I said over and over and over again was I would never quit my job for YouTube that's stupid people who do that are stupid why on earth would you put your financial security in the hands of someone else and I one other thing I did say though was I would let my wife quit her job long before I would ever quit mine and that's kind of the way it went my the channel ended up far exceeding what the wife was bringing in full time with her job and I I told her when you when you have our second child which she was pregnant with I said don't go back to work making more than money on the channel to make up for your income and a lot extra and taxes so stay home be a stay-at-home mom and I was that was like the highlight of my channel that's still I think the pinnacle achievement in all of this is not being able to be home you know home working on my own channel as an income it's allowing her to be home with our kids which is something we always wanted but she was a working mom for little Jade and I told her I said I really want you home for Minnie J and that's exactly what we achieved and that is still going to be my crowning achievement in all of this is her dream of being a stay-at-home mom is actually come true and that's again because of the sport of you guys on this channel but then I really started thinking is this something I could make work is this something that I could do and actually make a living at this comfortably and have enough of put aside in savings so that at the floor ever dropped out in this whole platform that we're not out on the street and then I started seeing people around me get laid off Jerry got laid off you know and people who work for companies that were that seemed very very stable we're losing their jobs and I got to thinking working for someone else is not financial security working for someone else does not mean at the end of the day you have a guaranteed income it doesn't matter if you're working for the government it doesn't matter if you're working for Microsoft Google if you're working for a software company like I was that was a small independent you know privately owned company but still made very good income it doesn't equal financial security and a lot of folks told me that I was crazy at the idea of quitting my job oh my gosh what are you gonna do what do you do buy the financial security working for that guy over there is not security working for that guy over there is a liability if he ever needs to save money I become an expense I can easily be cut so I started thinking if I don't try this if I don't take a chance and I never know what could have been to me inside that would have ripped me apart over the years because I'm a risk taker and it's something that would have just eaten me and eaten me and eat me and I couldn't live with that so I finally out during the night I spent a lot of nights not able to sleep and the wife would get up at 3:00 4:00 in the morning and I would just be awake just laying there awake my brain would not shut down I could not stop thinking about what could be so I got up in the morning and I wrote my resignation letter this was this was like February or something of last year and I showed it to a friend of mine who I trust very much and he said you know what he said good right he said right you wrote the letter and this was his advice by the way he says write a resignation letter but then set it aside don't turn it in anytime you're feeling those feelings late night during the day whatever and you just can't stop thinking about the idea of working for yourself take out your resignation letter and read it again on a different day different emotions and see if you still feel the same and every time I took that letter out and I read it I felt exactly the same as I did the monster prior so one day I turned it in and the rest is history so I get my two weeks notice and then became self-employed and I think one of the things I love most over the last year is the amount of freedom that I have I can try things and I can take the risk and I can fail and recover you fail at your job too many times they're gonna fire you and that I'm not gonna fire myself although I probably should sometimes but I don't like complacency and I don't like repetition and that's something I don't have to deal with working for myself now my goal moving forward I definitely don't want to continue to rely on a monetized platform like YouTube other folks have diversified on like YouTube and vessel and some other platforms but the bottom line is even though YouTube is only one of like five revenue streams that I have I if YouTube ever disappears or goes away and I lose you know a huge chunk of my income then that's still not financial independence and I want to moving forward I don't know how I'm going to do this yet I really don't know how I'm gonna do this yet I want to be completely financially independent from YouTube and where if they ever screw up over there which seems like they're constantly trying to do then I'm set because I have my own space that's bringing me money and I'm working towards that but obviously the advertising that I that I integrate into these videos and the pre-rolls and stuff has definitely been something that has allowed me a lot more financial freedom and to get away a little bit from worry about the constant what if YouTube this what if YouTube that you guys hear about these channels getting these false strikes and they lose weeks of income and they're like oh my god now we're going broke you know we're going to go bankrupt I'm not in that situation because I have a lot of money set aside thank God because I built this business up on the side and then slid into this once I was ready it wasn't some I didn't just wake up and go boss I'm out and then have to hope it worked because I didn't have enough money to get to the end of the month yeah that's not the way it worked out at all but I really just wanted to sit down with you guys and tell you that the last year has been absolutely phenomenal and it keeps me so excited for what's coming in the future and for the first time for the first time ever I think that the concept of this channel being able to reach a million subscribers might be possible and that I didn't think a hundred thousand was possible if you've been around long enough you remember me saying this channel will never hit a hundred thousand it is so amateur hour it's not even funny well now we're about to hit six hundred thousand subscribers which is why it's like I'm over the hump of being halfway there it might be possible it's just blowing my mind I mean seriously but you guys give me so much support that you don't even realize I mean if you know me personally you know I don't have many friends and I think that might be truth true for a lot of youtubers which is why we talked to cameras oh well I guess is is I have like three friends that's it and I've always been that way I've always been a bit introverted I don't like going to parties I don't like going to like CES and I like going to the after parties I don't like mingling and I'm an introvert it's the way I've always been my entire life if you watch my drive my life you already know my story and I just have never been very outgoing and YouTube has really cracked that she'll that she'll still there but it's really cracked it and it's falling off and I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable when I go to these events and things and one of the things that I really wanted to be able to do when I when I went self-employed was be able to go to events I was being invited to things that would seem so cool but I couldn't go because I had work and a lot of these events came up last-minute like within the you know several weeks before the event like hey here's your invite come visit it's like I only get so much vacation time of year and I've got to give well advance notice for my boss so sorry can't go but that's not the case anymore and and that's really exciting in fact I'm getting ready get on a plane next week to go to an undisclosed event that I can't tell you guys about but I'm really really looking forward to this event I can't wait to tell you guys all about it your guys's support has really changed my life more than you will ever know and being able to say it and say you guys have changed my life everyone says that all youtubers that are that are making you know they're living on YouTube or saying that you guys have changed my life you can't possibly know but the best we can do is just try and tell you that things for us at least myself here have been better than I've ever been and I have you guys to thank for that so with your continued support I'm gonna do everything I can to make this channel entertaining fair honest and everything that you guys expect from me I want to deliver because obviously as a content creator I expect certain things from you I expect you guys to be you know fair and and cordial in your comments which for the most part trolls are never going to go away but I have a commitment to you guys to bring you the best content that I possibly can that's entertaining and without sacrificing integrity because integrity to me is everything but just a couple of things I really want to say that I'm grateful for I know it sounds like Thanksgiving in April but that the last year has allowed us is an amazing family dynamic I'm always home with the family now instead of being gone all day coming home at 5:00 p.m. spending maybe an hour with the kids and then working until 2:00 3:00 in the morning and doing that over and over that's why my eyes were always so bloodshot and jacked up because I never got sleep but I get to spend so much more time with my kids and I ever did we've really been able to improve the home situation I now have a dedicated recording and office space upstairs and a rededicated recording and build space in one of the garages is a split car garage here and now I have a workshop where I can get things done simultaneously I can do business upstairs and not have to work where I record and it's it's so freakin amazing it's something I've never been able to experience before and that has just upped my morale so much part I think when I'm most grateful for quite honestly as your guys's continued support because without an audience watching these videos are nothing they are just it's just data on the server that's just sitting there not being called by anybody to view but because you guys are watching it gives me the freedom to continue being creative and moving forward and being independent and for that I just want to say thanks more than you'll ever know so anyway that's it time to get out of here I want you guys to do me a favor hit me up on Twitter or comment down below or facebook if you guys are following on facebook this is not one of those like you know hey come and follow me because I want to bloat my ego know I like having a lot of followers it's fun but I want to know over the last year or even just as long as my channels been around what's been your favorite J's $0.02 moment because I've got way too many to list that's why I've never done those year end videos like you know J is 2015 best of I I can't pick my favorite moments because there's so many so I kind of want you guys to tell me as long as I've been doing this YouTube channel what's your favorite moment tell me what it was and why and heck even link it so others can see it if it's a video or something like that anyway time to go guys thanks for watching and I will see you in the next video