I’m 6 weeks into building this brand.

I have been so busy that I was not able to create and publish new posts this past week. I haven't gone on any new trips to film, and I don't really have anything from my old content that I can reuse quite yet.

Normally, with text-based content, I can write tons of content ahead of time and then publish it throughout the week. I can also rewrite it to make it like new or add a little more information to make new content. But for this brand, it's heavily leaning on video content of me going outdoors. Since I haven't gone anywhere, I have no content to produce.

But I don’t want to get stuck in this situation again, so what can I do?

Well, I can lean into local hikes, trails, mountains, and parks. Something I can visit within 30 minutes or less, and it’s free, easy, and worth showing to others. I already have three places in mind.

Each one of these are nearby, making it easy for me to pack up and go on a quick day adventure. That gives me the opportunity to go outdoors, film, and upload more content. I can easily get 2-3 days worth of content from a single one of these day trips.

The key here is to plan ahead and leverage what is easily available to me. If I were in any other niche, the strategy would be the same. Plan ahead with something that’s easy to do, reducing the friction to create new content.

The two challenges I had was;

(1) working longer hours and more days and

(2) finishing the video edit for Joshua Tree.

It’s peak holiday season and that means I’m working far more hours this month. I went from 40 hours to now working 60 hours. I’m also working graveyard. It’s not a hard job, but I am tired getting out around 6:30 am. Then when I get home, I end up sleeping till about 2:00 pm, giving me only a couple hours of business time before I need to get ready for another long 12 hour shift.

So, with those couple of hours, and during my off days, I was spending all of my time focused on just editing my first video. I’ve done plenty of videos in the past, and all I needed was a simple video editor like iMovie or Canva. Nothing fancy or expensive.

I've seen hundreds of videos about outdoor trips like what I'm filming, and I knew that I was gonna need a higher-end video editor, but something that is still simple and cheap to use. Sure, I can get something expensive like Final Cut Pro or Premiere, but I am still learning a lot about editing and would prefer to start with something simple, and most importantly, something that has tons of tutorials on YouTube for me to learn from.

CapCut has a tremendous amount of users, and there is so may tutorial videos, which made it easier to learn how to apply effects, transitions, captions, color grading, and so much more. So, I used CapCut for this reason. Lots of tutorials, easy to use, and low cost.

I hope this transparency helps you understand, that creating content doesn’t mean you need to quit your job, or that all creators have a time advantage that you don’t.

Most of the time I spend at work, I think about what I could do once I get home, how I can make something better, and prioritizing my tasks. I once quit my job to go all in on being a creator, and writing content everyday. What I learned throughout that year was that I wasted so much more time, compared to when I worked a regular day job.

The reason I wasted so much time was because I would over-research a topic, fret about tiny little things in my design, grammar, and the biggest time sink—testing every tool on the market and comparing them to see which one would be the best option to help me do the current task at hand.

I also got lost in my phone, doom scrolling far too long.

Eventually, I realized I don’t need as much time to build this business. It doesn’t take to much time to build a brand, to create content, and to scale the business. It does take time for it to start and get it going, but additional hours per day wasn’t going to help. I just needed consistency over a long period of time.

Now, onto the results for this past week.

With no new posts for the week, making it two weeks now, I have no beneficial results from my previous content. What that tells me is, either I don’t have enough content for the algorithm to surface it on people’s FYP, or the shelf life on Instagram is short lived, forcing me to create more content frequently.

Time will tell as I pile on more content, eventually reaching 100+ posts to get a solid read on this.

Share screenshot results of analytics

Once again, TikTok is getting the most attention. I didn’t post anything and I still got over 100 views and another follower.

Every day I can see that there are people constantly looking at my profile. I don’t know if they are looking for more similar content, or just curious what this channel is about. But, I’m guessing that if I can upload more content and provide a variety, then I can convert more of them into followers.

Of course, the variety is dependent on the niche I am in. And for this account, I’ll just visit a variety of locations like forests, beaches, cities, and trails. Hopefully that will work. That will be the goal for the month of December to add a variety of travel destinations.

Screenshot results of analytics

Nothing was done. No new content. No activity.

screenshot results of analytics

I finally finished my video on Nov. 22nd (Saturday). I published it and so far have only gotten 11 views. The average watch time is 9 mins 59 seconds. It also had a reach of 1.3k impressions, so no one is really clicking into my video quite yet.

I spent about a week making and revising the thumbnail, which I think looked good, and has large text to draw a specific audience.

I'm not worried about the low view count on this video. What makes me happiest is that I've uploaded a lengthy video for people to discover when they visit my channel. Now, when viewers find me through my shorts, they can watch a long-form video that showcases my video quality, the content I create, and my storytelling style for these types of trips. I have lots of room to improve, but that will come with time. For now, the win is simply adding more videos to my channel.

Here goes that video and thumbnail here.

Screenshot results of analytics

I got 24 web views, but that might have been only my views when I was creating and editing the website. I still have no subscribers other than the one which is myself. I’m not worried about this though, I have time to build the journal posts, and that will come with more trips over time.

For now, I’ll keep creating content and linking my website and individual posts to reach a wider audience and increase my chances of converting interested visitors into subscribers.

Since I built my website on Beehiiv, and Beehiiv recently announced an update to their analytics, I’ll be using that information for the future once I get access. For now, there will be no screenshot as there isn’t anything to show anyways.

Nothing was published on Substack either. I will upload the YouTube video here along with a short published post about Joshua Tree and my experience. I’ll publish that this week.

TikTok continues to dominate with 146 views and 1 new follower—without posting any new content. The algorithm keeps surfacing my existing videos, proving that the platform has strong long-term discoverability. Every day, people visit my profile, likely looking for more content or curious about the channel.

YouTube is playing the long game. My first video only got 11 views, but the 10-minute average watch time shows people are engaged when they do click. The low CTR suggests the thumbnail needs work, but the real win is having long-form content on my channel for discovery. As I add more videos and shorts, viewers will have quality content to explore.