What to be successful? - learn from a You Tuber

I religiously follow handful YouTube’s channels and love to entertain myself during some down time after a hectic day at work.  I recently happen to ask a young kid while he was scrolling few books at Barnes and Nobles on science and technology, I asked him, what do you want to become when you grow up. I was confident his response would be an engineer or a career in medicine.

Without taking any further time to think, he confidently replied- I want to be a “You Tuber”.

I was not shocked by his response because I was aware about the new trend by young teenagers to occupy the space on YouTube. What shocked me was- how can a person earn his living just off by video blogging. In real world, it just didn’t make sense at all. So to investigate more about the video blogger life behind the scenes, I wore my investigating cap on and mostly spend my weekend to research about real work done by you tubers behind the scenes.

So here are my findings below and we all should follow the same rules at work or in personal life to succeed”

1)   They have found their niche

I almost investigated over 15 famous you tubers including the new rising ones, one thing was common among all of them - they all have found their niche, it could be anything playing videos games, beauty videos, funny videos like one by aka superwoman Lily Singh or by Miranda. None of them have followed the crowd, they are passionate and confident about their interest and that was clearly visible in their videos.

2)   Be authentic

All the you tubers have a strong crowd following them on YouTube, Instagram , Twitter, Snap Chat and so on.. They have never distributed freebies to viewers to follow them or like their videos; instead they have remained authentic and honest with their viewers. Followers can sense the authenticity in their videos, which are not highly scripted. They are transparent and honest; give chance to viewers to take a peek inside their life.

3)   Ask their feedback and use it

You tubers have learned this point like a punch in the gut- without their followers, they have no chance in the world to succeed or to survive the growing competition each day. Therefore they take all the feedback from their followers very seriously and work hard to implement as they learn everyday. They are loyal to their followers and don’t forget the value of followers.

4)   Appreciate

You tubers have learned to appreciate their competitors in a positive way. They love to promote each other and even collaborate with each other. They take the competition healthily and learn from their competitors.

Each You Tuber spend hours on creating their content, watching 3 minutes videos may not be a big deal for us but it surely takes several days for them to format, edit, uploading those videos with right content. Editing alone can take up to 10 hours and another few hours to upload them.

Lessons learned 1) No easy road to success 2) appreciate others 3) take competition healthily 4) take feedback seriously, not many people will waste time giving you one 5) Be authentic 6) find your niche- its never to late.

Should we all go for “Credit Card Diet” for end of this year?

Yes, it is that time of the year, where our shopping hormones are running high. We are surrounded by companies who have perfected their skills to lure us with all kind of sales flyer, marketing emails, discount coupons, pre-approved credit cards and much more…

There intentions are clear and focused- let the customer spend…spend…more spend…

Marketing department of Wal-Mart, Amazon or any other large corporations have spend millions of dollars to track your spending habit via credit card, face book likes, pictures, and many other several ways. Their main targets are holidays where customers walk out of their homes with credit cards inbuilt in their phones and ready to roll to go on uncountable shopping spree..

Did you know? The United States is a bad role model, carrying a debt of 17 trillion dollars. Almost 20 million customers are addicted to shopping and have no control over their behaviors.

People are constantly filling the empty space of sadness in their life by going on shopping spree, which usually last for maximum 48 hours, and then they are back to normal- feeling depressed again. Some of us have no idea, how much we bought and how much we really have and the primary question is DO WE NEED ALL OF THIS?????

My husband and I spend several days in the month by analyzing our shopping habit for previous months or rest of the year to keep us on track. I want to share with you my tips, hoping this would help you and your family to stay away from credit card debt

1)   Admitting you are a shopaholic is the first step to success. Take help from your family, partner or children to come clean over this issue.

2)   Take an inventory of things you have in the home. Sort them out in two tabs- “absolute necessary” and “can live without it”- Once you compile- your “can live without it” list- keep that handy on your phone, tag it on your fridge or make a color copy and hang it in your bedroom. The point here is to remind yourself- No need to buy unnecessary things.

3)   Companies send sales flyer every day especially before holiday to tempt people to go online and shop~ BLOCK THOSE EMAILS OR DELETE THEM RIGHT AWAY

4)   Open a savings account for your child or yourself- keep transferring set amount every month as a your future savings. Over the time, increasing amount accumulated in your account will motivate you with a positive mindset to save more.

5)   Don’t get lured by 15% or 20% additional discount you get, when you open stores credit card. Their goal is to sell you things, credit and much more. Say NO to store cards or any coupons.

6)   Shop with cash and only cash. Put in place envelope system to divide your monthly expenses and use cash as much as possible.

7)   Finally use MINT.COM or ENVELOPE app on your smart phones and tablets to keep eye on your spending.

Hopefully our tricks will help you to save money and live debt free life.