The Creative Awakening: How YouTube Gave Me New Life
- Isaac Lester
- Sep 21
- 6 min read
Picture this: You spend hours crafting something you think might be decent, upload it with trembling fingers, and when you watch it back, it looks like a recording of a foot whispering on a baked potato. Welcome to my YouTube journey.
... I published it anyway. And that single act changed everything.
The Comfortable Trap
I was already creating content – hours of it, actually. Snapchat stories, random videos, casual shares here and there. But Snapchat was a pool of familiar faces, safe waters, content that disappeared in 24 hours like it never happened. YouTube was like the internet ocean of video content.
I feared the judgment.
What if people thought my videos were terrible? What if I embarrassed myself in front of thousands? But sitting there at 29, watching other creators build digital legacies while I stayed comfortable in my disappearing-story bubble, a more obvious and darker fear crept in:
What if I never found out who I could become?
That fear of staying small, of never testing my limits, and of course, like they all say of "reaching my deathbed wondering 'what if'" was all worse than any criticism some stranger on the internet could ever throw at me. But here's the thing that took me way too long to internalize: everyone is infinitely more concerned with what's going on in their own lives to have the time to judge what I have going on.
The Reframe That Changed Everything
As I crept toward my thirties, I had a sobering realization. I'd spent years watching other creators build from zero, establishing platforms, creating their own digital archives and legacies to pass on to their loved ones. I wanted in on that game.
The question hit me like a cold wave: Why not me?
The answer was painfully simple: Because I never started
That's when my perspective shifted. I stopped seeing content creation as a fixed market reserved for the preselected and creatively blessed, and started viewing it as a learnable game that I could get into and improve at.
Suddenly, success wasn't a matter of luck or genetics; it was a matter of practice. We've all been programmed to expect and think less of ourselves, impregnated with seeds of doubt that overgrow into shrubs blocking the truth from getting in. But when you see the process as something you can improve at, everything changes. Success becomes a matter of learning what you don't yet know.
Coming to be knowing what you are not yet knowing.
Flying Half a Ship
Within minutes of posting my first video, I could see exactly what needed improvement: cleaner audio, better lighting, more refined talking points, better editing.
Instead of being discouraged, I got to work. My overall project was still in one piece, even if we were flying a half complete ship. I told myself that "baby steps toward progress are still progress", because they are! Then the trickle of views and likes started coming in. Comments appeared.
Of course we all hope beyond reason, but I didn't expect anyone to actually watch the video! There were actual human beings out there interested in what I had to say? The moment that sealed it: I asked myself, "Would I follow me?" After honest reflection, I realized I had become exactly the person I would have followed several years ago. In pressing record and following through to upload, I had become an upstart creator working hard to earn the title.
It's messy and unpolished and to a trained eye there's likely way too much focus over here when it should be over there, but it's "me", and it's real. My channel is a real representation of what it looks like when someone goes all in, around their daily life, and tackles the question of "how to do a YouTube".
The Cascade Effect and the Deeper Truth About Change
What I didn't expect was how this one step would ripple into every other creative outlet. It restarted the idea factory across a host of creative mediums.
Video creation feels incredibly powerful in my hands, but the same fire I feel from the desire to record burns just as intensely when I draft blog articles, create playlists, design t-shirts, or work on newsletter issues. I'm in love with expression, and it's a wild romance.
Since leaving the military and experiencing a few years of drift, I now see that I simply lacked proper purpose. I'm beyond grateful to feel excited to work on something again, and it's groovy to live in a time that offers such a wide range of mediums and platforms as well. Having outlets for this explosion of creative energy makes me excited to show up for life again.
As it turns out, the "experts" were right, all man needs is a solid goal to strive towards with sufficient challenge along the way. I can't wait until I have the skills I need to create the content I dream about sharing.
Here's the critical distinction most people miss: the difference between passive change and intentional progress. Change is inevitable. You're getting older, circumstances are shifting, life stages are transitioning. But passive change just lets entropy scatter you until there's nothing left to scatter. Intentional progress takes that same energy from entropy and bends it in a productive direction.
If I had chosen passive change, I'd be watching a video while smoking and enjoying a drink right now. Instead, it's 8pm on a Friday night and I'm content with creating. One version of me still has no idea how to start with YouTube, while the current version is well on the way to building an empire.
Multiple Things Can Be True
I know enough to set all of this up and get it running and make it look mostly easy. It really is as easy as setting the camera down somewhere preferable, pressing record, and uploading it. Do it from your bedroom. Record in your car.
The other half of that is that I've never run a personal brand or media company before, and chances are, you haven't either. And for that reason, we shouldn't expect perfection in anything because we're just getting started.
I spend crazy amounts of time working to make something to upload or publish, and it still comes out looking amateur. I publish anyway because I need to see just as much as other upcoming creators that no one has it all figured out in the beginning.
When it's published and done, I immediately have a fresh list of areas to focus on for improvement. It's a muscle, just like every other thing that can be learned by a human being. It's a muscle, so I will learn to exercise it.
This transparency and willingness to be imperfect publicly while working toward something better, is what past-me would have followed. Not perfection, but authentic progression.
The New Life
A month and some change later, I have a small beachhead on the shores of the most dominant video platform on the planet. Childhood me literally wouldn't even comprehend it, because YouTube is only 20 years old!
Every time a number goes up, I'm reminded that if I put forth my best effort, there's a chance I might impact someone out there struggling with the same problems I once faced. It's an honor to adopt that responsibility. We should all be eager to do what we can to make the world better. The more we share, the more one bowl becomes plentiful, yo'.
Whereas before I was just a guy on a boat planning to spend the next decade casually floating, I now have renewed purpose in documenting the journey. Starting this YouTube adventure gave me a platform and gave me permission to give myself permission to take my creative life with the kind of dedication I've always dreamed of.
Whatever you're trying to create, make a reasonable plan and just start.
Get it going. Get it good. Work it groovy.
There will be different challenges along the way, and whether you face them or halt in front of them determines whether you reach the stars or remain admiring them from the ground.
Per Aspera, Ad Astra
Through Hardships, to The Gorydamn Stars
- Isaac Lester & Bobert Le'Unbending
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Want to follow along on this creative journey? Check out my YouTube channel where I document everything from sailboat life to the behind-the-scenes of building all this from scratch. Fair warning: I've no idea what I'm doing, but a strong desire to "become knowing of what I am not knowing."
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