š„ I'm not allowed to edit videos
January 2024
Iāve created and edited hundreds of videos over the course of the last few years. Iāve used Descript, Screenflow, Final Cut Pro, and various in-app editors. Iāve shared these videos on my now-nearly-defunct YouTube channel, on my now-defunct TikTok account, for clients and courses. I even hosted a now-defunct video creatorsā community, and explored running a video editing agency. (We served a couple clients, werenāt optimistic about the uniqueness or margins of the business model ā¦ itās now defunct :)
No more.
From here on out, Iām not editing any more videos. It turns out Iām the worst kind of person on earth for this kind of work.
Why?
Iām the kind of nerd who enjoys pursuing mastery of tools. Any tool. So I get really into learning features and shortcuts for whatever tool Iām using.
This isnāt a bad thing, but I also have a nasty perfectionist streak.
You might not know that from watching any of the videos I shared! But each time I hit āUploadā it was a forceful decision to quit overthinking, quit tweaking, move on with life. Each time I stopped editing (I never really finished) it cost me.
On top of that, some of the videos I made were collaborative. Interviews that I thoroughly enjoyed, then proceeded to turn into nightmare projects of obsessive fussing.
Add a hefty dose of people-pleasing to the perfectionism, put someone elseās image and expectations on the line, and you have a recipe for a never-finished, never-published video. Iāve got three of these in my queue right now. Iām abandoning them. It feels terrible. But at least Iām not adding to the queue.
What Iāll do instead
As evidenced by the inclusion of a one-take, no-edits video at the top of this post ā¦ Iāll do one-take videos and share them without editing.
Iāll focus on training myself to recover when I misspeak, or fumble my words, or stutter. Iāll push myself to let a video be Good Enough as it is. Hopefully this will train me to be a better podcast guest so by mid-2024, when I hope to start marketing my second book, I can enter those calls with confidenceāand leave the edits to the hosts.
Iāll turn my nerdy passion for tools to focus on using OBS Studio to add a bit of flourish to my live recordings.
Iāll spend more time on prep for videos, but not much moreānothing even close to how long I used to spend on edits.
Iām on the fence as to whether I trust myself to edit audio content. I had a blast recording a proof-of-concept podcast episode for my blog post about criticism of Jimi Hendrix, and Iād like to do more. Audio is way simpler than video.
So, do I dare trust myself with a few Audacity sessions? Probably, weāll see. (Watch this space for a January 2025 āIām not allowed to edit mp3sā post.)