As of today, I have been making Youtube videos full-time for 10 years So to celebrate, I am answering your questions plus I'm giving away items like this beautiful spinning top from vorso and other items from my videos so if you want to win one of those then write down the characters that will appear randomly in the top right corner of this video Those will be your password to the form in the description so let's get into it Why did you start doing youtube?
because I always wanted to be a filmmaker As a kid, I loved doing plays and musicals I had the most fun of my life when I was working with creative other people but I always thought that a career in the traditional film or tv industry was a terrible idea and like your life was out of your control It seemed to rely on a big break;
I don't think those industries were meritocracies so for basically my whole life until I was 28, I did the safe thing And I studied engineering and physics and did a PhD in physics and then I taught people physics and I love science but I also love just the craft of putting together a film or a video and sending it out into the world and I think this makes a lot of sense because I liked learning about science, and I liked performing and that is exactly what making Youtube videos allows me to do You know the process of doing science is very different from the process of learning science uh and so I think it's not surprising that this is the thing that I love more than being a scientist I have been on Youtube for 10 years and it was starting to show.
There was so much gray in my beard that uh i'm shaving it off to wind back the clock I am giving away this fully specked 2017 macbook pro I used this to make a lot of my videos but those are all wiped off here now so it's just a nicely specced laptop that you could use to make more videos if you wanted Any advice you have for people coming out of high school or college and unsure how to take their first steps? the key is just start doing it after making my Youtube channel for a few months I sort of snuck into a science awards in sydney and australia And there I found sort of the executive producer of the only science show on Australian television and I got his business card And the very next day,
I emailed him And I sent him links to all of the videos, or you know, the videos I was most proud of anyway And uh I didn't really expect to hear anything but three weeks later I got an email back from him and he was like,
these are really good why don't you come in and we'll have a chat and I think the key to that interaction was I had stuff to show him I didn't go to him and say, "Hey I'd love to be involved in your TV program." you know what can I do for you?
What do you need done? You know?
I came to him and I said that's what I'm capable of and if if that's of interest to you, then great I have literally thousands of penrose tiles that I will be sending out,
if you want them, I'm giving these away. I will send you 21 kites and then 13 darts of another color What has been the hardest part of your Youtube journey?
I would say the beginning You know, everything's like a snowball It's always hardest to make the snowball when it's small and I know that there were a number of times when I thought that I would just quit doing youtube because it seemed like I was getting no traction I think the other problem with the beginning was, I wasn't very good at Youtube I wasn't very good at presenting to a camera I wasn't very good at picking topics Most people know how to tell apart a ... a hard-boiled egg from a raw egg ... Well you're gonna find out pretty quick if you uh if you break the shell I've said it before and I'll say it again I think I was lucky not to know how bad I was because otherwise I really would have stopped in the early days I am giving away these Ames windows All lovingly handcrafted by me painstakingly over hours and hours colored in beautiful gopro hero4 still works a little old Do your kids watch your videos?
