Hey friends, just want to keep you all in the loop because usually I would have dropped a video today.
I’ve been sick for the past few days, but will drop a new short in about 9 hours 😁 I’m currently working on getting an editor, so that I can release more frequently.
I love that y’all are digging the stories recently and I just want you all to know that I appreciate you tuning in 🙏
If you really can’t wait for more, here’s a few old stories from my archives which you may not have seen, which I think you’ll enjoy:
I wrote an essay about my YouTube journey to celebrate, like a big weirdo.
It's not something that will too too well in the YouTube community post algorithm, because it isn't a poll about whether you prefer butter or margarine 😂
HOWEVER, it has been cathartic to think about everything that has happened and maybe one day there will be someone out there who wants to do something they love, maybe they stumble on this and maybe it will inspire them? Who knows. This is for that one person.
It was only May last year that I lost my job a few weeks before my wife and I had our first child and wow, a lot of things have changed in the past year.
When I lost my job, I made the decision that I was going to finally try to make a living from YouTube, but it was a daunting decision to make. I had already tried it before, many times, and it had never turned out the way I imagined it would.
Most of you don't know this, but I have been making videos for YouTube since 2011. And while I've had a lot of little bursts of success on the platform, I was never able to make a living off of it.
I started with comedy and prank videos with my friends and I still remember the feeling of the first video that got some level of success in 2011. I remember the day it hit 100k views. That was HUGE at that time. I told my parents that I was going to be a YouTuber and I dreamt of how great it would be when I hit 10,000 subscribers.
That never happened on that channel. Turns out you have to keep uploading successful videos to keep growing your subscriber base. Who knew?!
Years later, in 2016, I had graduated my media degree at uni and I was working a sales job which I really didn't like. I decided to give YouTube another crack. This time, I made a channel in the tech/gadget/unboxing niche called 'GeekBite'. The channel was slow to start with, but as I hit my stride and found a format that worked for me, the views started coming in.
GeekBite ended up having a few MASSIVE successes off the back of the fidget spinner trend in 2017 and before long, I found myself with over 10,000 subscribers, a 'Fidget Spinner Play Button Award' made for me by a fan (still my favourite award to this day!) and a LOT of media outlets wanting to talk to me about the trend. I wrote a fun book with absurd fidget spinner tricks which sold over 40k copies worldwide and life was good!
At least that's what I thought...
I was working myself too hard, burning the candle at both ends and it wasn't healthy. The channel had grown to 70k subscribers, but I was getting overwhelmed by it all and it all culminated with a series of panic attacks like I had never experienced before in my life. I didn't recognise myself when I looked in the mirror, I started getting anxious to even talk to my own parents and friends and I just couldn't bear sitting in front of the camera any more. I discovered that this was depersonalisation disorder - an anxiety disorder which I had experienced on and off through my early teens, but which I'd all but forgotten about/ignored.
The next 3-5 years were a long road to getting better. I started seeing a psychologist and I started doing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to gradually expose myself to the things that would trigger my anxiety attacks, slowly becoming more desensitised to the triggers. I learned a lot about myself on my recovery journey and I can now say that I am thankful for the experience and the challenges I had to face.
So that brings us to a year ago.
I was feeling great. The pandemic was over, my wife and I were expecting our first child and I had been working a job I loved for 3 years. So when the company I worked at fell apart and all the staff were let go just weeks before my wife went into labour, I was f**ked.
I unlisted all my old videos (still available here for your cringing pleasure: bit.ly/geekbite), I re-branded my 'GeekBite' YouTube channel to my name and started working on what was going to be a desperate Hail Mary video. A video that would re-launch my channel, get some money flowing in and still allow me to work from home to be with my wife during this important time. I worked 3 months on a crazy video idea. A video that connects it's YouTube data to an organisation that plants trees, so when you watch it, a portion of the money it earns goes towards planting trees! It was such a crazy idea, that I thought it MUST work.
I made the video and... it went okay... like, a couple thousand views. Not great. Pretty bad actually. Here's the video if for some reason you're interested, I've unlisted it now: https://youtu.be/jlBB3X5jAX8
However, that video didn't fail entirely. I shared it with a bunch of different people and companies and one company got back to me. TubeBuddy. The people at TubeBuddy liked my video! I was stoked. I had been using TubeBuddy for years, so this was a very weird experience for me. The lovely people at TubeBuddy offered me a job to make Shorts, teaching YouTube success on their channel and I agreed.
The job at TubeBuddy supported my family during a time that we really needed it. While at TubeBuddy, I switched my personal channel's content style again, feeling inspired and moved by uplifting stories of other people overcoming hardship and also just experiencing the beauty and joy life has to offer. It wasn't a type of content that I ever thought I'd be doing, but I quickly came to love telling these stories in my free time when I wasn't making TubeBuddy Shorts.
After 6 months of making YouTube Shorts for TubeBuddy, they decided to outsource the work I was doing to an animation agency and they brought in other faces to replace me. It was an odd decision I feel, but I'm thankful for the opportunity they gave me and it forced me to go all-in on my own channel, which has now ended up being wildly successful for me, so I can't be too mad.
So here we are! 1M subscribers, the channel is supporting our new family and I feel like it's only the beginning.
As you might know, I've been planting 1 tree for every 100 subscribers through a partnership with Ecologi and we have now finally hit our goal of 10,000 trees planted! 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
Through this campaign, we successfully supported projects all across Africa and also in South America and the projects have supported food security, employment and reforestation in 8 different countries!
If you want to learn more about the projects we’ve supported or purchase your own trees in our forest or even start your own forest, you can check it all out here: ecologi.com/davidking
This won't be the last campaign I do like this. I'm looking into potential partnerships to make an impact in the mental health space, so I'll let you all know when I have more to share!
What a wild past year this has been. Thank you to everyone for all your support, I appreciate you all.
Hi 👋 I’m currently building out my team and I’m looking for a video editor to help me out with editing YouTube Shorts!
If you’re a video editor, you resonate with my content and you want to help me tell stories of love, perseverance and the unpredictable joy of being human, then tap this link 😁 .
Thanks for 500k subscribers! 🎉🙏❤️ With 1 tree being planted for every 100 subs, that brings our total tree count over 5000 trees! 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
Thank you so much. So far, we have helped 12 different projects all across Africa and South America through our partnership with Ecologi.
The projects have supported food security, employment and reforestation in 8 different countries! Wild 🤯
If you want to learn more about the projects we’ve supported, purchase your own trees in our forest or even start your own forest, check it all out here: ecologi.com/davidking
I’m creating an email newsletter with uplifting, positive stories of humanity, much like what I share in my YouTube Shorts, sent straight to your inbox.
The question is, for those who would subscribe to this, how frequently would you like it?
David King
David King
Hey friends, just want to keep you all in the loop because usually I would have dropped a video today.
I’ve been sick for the past few days, but will drop a new short in about 9 hours 😁 I’m currently working on getting an editor, so that I can release more frequently.
I love that y’all are digging the stories recently and I just want you all to know that I appreciate you tuning in 🙏
If you really can’t wait for more, here’s a few old stories from my archives which you may not have seen, which I think you’ll enjoy:
Never lose hope
youtube.com/shorts/tHzwRM0co_I
He missed on purpose?
youtube.com/shorts/pmr5vSyW7Xw
This is true sportsmanship
youtube.com/shorts/rM-tlpEAaiI
This race is intense…
youtube.com/shorts/pvhtcsoVz6c
And they’re off!
youtube.com/shorts/RXZpioHaON4
2 months ago | [YT] | 49
View 6 replies
David King
What are you grateful for today?
2 months ago | [YT] | 71
View 22 replies
David King
Thank you all so much for 1M subscribers! 🎉🙏❤️
I wrote an essay about my YouTube journey to celebrate, like a big weirdo.
It's not something that will too too well in the YouTube community post algorithm, because it isn't a poll about whether you prefer butter or margarine 😂
HOWEVER, it has been cathartic to think about everything that has happened and maybe one day there will be someone out there who wants to do something they love, maybe they stumble on this and maybe it will inspire them? Who knows. This is for that one person.
It was only May last year that I lost my job a few weeks before my wife and I had our first child and wow, a lot of things have changed in the past year.
When I lost my job, I made the decision that I was going to finally try to make a living from YouTube, but it was a daunting decision to make. I had already tried it before, many times, and it had never turned out the way I imagined it would.
Most of you don't know this, but I have been making videos for YouTube since 2011. And while I've had a lot of little bursts of success on the platform, I was never able to make a living off of it.
I started with comedy and prank videos with my friends and I still remember the feeling of the first video that got some level of success in 2011. I remember the day it hit 100k views. That was HUGE at that time. I told my parents that I was going to be a YouTuber and I dreamt of how great it would be when I hit 10,000 subscribers.
That never happened on that channel. Turns out you have to keep uploading successful videos to keep growing your subscriber base. Who knew?!
Years later, in 2016, I had graduated my media degree at uni and I was working a sales job which I really didn't like. I decided to give YouTube another crack. This time, I made a channel in the tech/gadget/unboxing niche called 'GeekBite'. The channel was slow to start with, but as I hit my stride and found a format that worked for me, the views started coming in.
GeekBite ended up having a few MASSIVE successes off the back of the fidget spinner trend in 2017 and before long, I found myself with over 10,000 subscribers, a 'Fidget Spinner Play Button Award' made for me by a fan (still my favourite award to this day!) and a LOT of media outlets wanting to talk to me about the trend. I wrote a fun book with absurd fidget spinner tricks which sold over 40k copies worldwide and life was good!
At least that's what I thought...
I was working myself too hard, burning the candle at both ends and it wasn't healthy. The channel had grown to 70k subscribers, but I was getting overwhelmed by it all and it all culminated with a series of panic attacks like I had never experienced before in my life. I didn't recognise myself when I looked in the mirror, I started getting anxious to even talk to my own parents and friends and I just couldn't bear sitting in front of the camera any more. I discovered that this was depersonalisation disorder - an anxiety disorder which I had experienced on and off through my early teens, but which I'd all but forgotten about/ignored.
The next 3-5 years were a long road to getting better. I started seeing a psychologist and I started doing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to gradually expose myself to the things that would trigger my anxiety attacks, slowly becoming more desensitised to the triggers. I learned a lot about myself on my recovery journey and I can now say that I am thankful for the experience and the challenges I had to face.
So that brings us to a year ago.
I was feeling great. The pandemic was over, my wife and I were expecting our first child and I had been working a job I loved for 3 years. So when the company I worked at fell apart and all the staff were let go just weeks before my wife went into labour, I was f**ked.
I unlisted all my old videos (still available here for your cringing pleasure: bit.ly/geekbite), I re-branded my 'GeekBite' YouTube channel to my name and started working on what was going to be a desperate Hail Mary video. A video that would re-launch my channel, get some money flowing in and still allow me to work from home to be with my wife during this important time. I worked 3 months on a crazy video idea. A video that connects it's YouTube data to an organisation that plants trees, so when you watch it, a portion of the money it earns goes towards planting trees! It was such a crazy idea, that I thought it MUST work.
I made the video and... it went okay... like, a couple thousand views. Not great. Pretty bad actually.
Here's the video if for some reason you're interested, I've unlisted it now:
https://youtu.be/jlBB3X5jAX8
However, that video didn't fail entirely. I shared it with a bunch of different people and companies and one company got back to me. TubeBuddy. The people at TubeBuddy liked my video! I was stoked. I had been using TubeBuddy for years, so this was a very weird experience for me. The lovely people at TubeBuddy offered me a job to make Shorts, teaching YouTube success on their channel and I agreed.
The job at TubeBuddy supported my family during a time that we really needed it. While at TubeBuddy, I switched my personal channel's content style again, feeling inspired and moved by uplifting stories of other people overcoming hardship and also just experiencing the beauty and joy life has to offer. It wasn't a type of content that I ever thought I'd be doing, but I quickly came to love telling these stories in my free time when I wasn't making TubeBuddy Shorts.
After 6 months of making YouTube Shorts for TubeBuddy, they decided to outsource the work I was doing to an animation agency and they brought in other faces to replace me. It was an odd decision I feel, but I'm thankful for the opportunity they gave me and it forced me to go all-in on my own channel, which has now ended up being wildly successful for me, so I can't be too mad.
So here we are! 1M subscribers, the channel is supporting our new family and I feel like it's only the beginning.
As you might know, I've been planting 1 tree for every 100 subscribers through a partnership with Ecologi and we have now finally hit our goal of 10,000 trees planted!
🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
Through this campaign, we successfully supported projects all across Africa and also in South America and the projects have supported food security, employment and reforestation in 8 different countries!
If you want to learn more about the projects we’ve supported or purchase your own trees in our forest or even start your own forest, you can check it all out here: ecologi.com/davidking
This won't be the last campaign I do like this. I'm looking into potential partnerships to make an impact in the mental health space, so I'll let you all know when I have more to share!
What a wild past year this has been.
Thank you to everyone for all your support, I appreciate you all.
💛 David
1 year ago | [YT] | 166
View 9 replies
David King
Hi 👋
I’m currently building out my team and I’m looking for a video editor to help me out with editing YouTube Shorts!
If you’re a video editor, you resonate with my content and you want to help me tell stories of love, perseverance and the unpredictable joy of being human, then tap this link 😁 .
ytjobs.co/job/4583
Talk soon!
- David
1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 111
View 8 replies
David King
What are you grateful for today?
1 year ago | [YT] | 254
View 46 replies
David King
What’s something good that happened this week? 💛
1 year ago | [YT] | 143
View 30 replies
David King
I hope you’re all having a wonderful day 💛
1 year ago | [YT] | 566
View 21 replies
David King
Thanks for 500k subscribers! 🎉🙏❤️
With 1 tree being planted for every 100 subs, that brings our total tree count over 5000 trees! 🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳
Thank you so much.
So far, we have helped 12 different projects all across Africa and South America through our partnership with Ecologi.
The projects have supported food security, employment and reforestation in 8 different countries! Wild 🤯
If you want to learn more about the projects we’ve supported, purchase your own trees in our forest or even start your own forest, check it all out here: ecologi.com/davidking
Thanks again everyone 🙏
I appreciate you all.
1 year ago | [YT] | 216
View 12 replies
David King
What other platform would you like to see me post more on?
Tiktok: tiktok.com/@gdaydk
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gdaydk
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gdaydk
Twitter: twitter.com/gdaydk
2 years ago | [YT] | 50
View 13 replies
David King
Alright, I’m doing it!
I’m creating an email newsletter with uplifting, positive stories of humanity, much like what I share in my YouTube Shorts, sent straight to your inbox.
The question is, for those who would subscribe to this, how frequently would you like it?
2 years ago | [YT] | 94
View 16 replies
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