1k Subscribers on YouTube - What I Learned
- Fletch
- 5 days ago
- 14 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
It's official : YouTube pays me for creating videos. Still feels weird saying this!! This October 2025 I hit the monetization milestone on YouTube of reaching 1000 subscribers. Yeyyy. Here's what I learned on my journey. I hope it helps anyone START. CONTINUE. NOT GIVE UP. And honestly if I can do, anyone can. ANYONE. Go Check out my EBook Here: 0-1k subscribers How To Start Your Own Channel
In this blog I'm going to talk about:
My own experiences in starting a YouTube channel.
Why I started one in the first place being an introvert, shy, woman of 40 that had low self esteem (a viewer actually said to me that if it feels so bad then why do it to yourself. Yeh thanks for that, but that's kind of the whole point. That's the fear I had to face to step into the person that I wanted to be. Not the person that was limited by doubt, fear, lack. This isn't a miracle story it's a journey with some effort required. And fear and stepping out of your comfort zone is truly where collapsing the timeline shifts massively. Big feelings = big results)
And then my journey on actually growing it from 0-1000 subscribers.
And most importantly - What I learned along the way.
Btw, If you don't subscribe already please do stop by and subscribe - it's like a virtual wave, like saying hello... when people subscribe it's my way of knowing that they're seeing my posts and that there's a point to all this - i.e. The blog, my writing etc.
A little thank you - Firstly thank you for being here. Your kindness and nice comments helped me carry on. Every nice comment helped me believe in myself that little bit more. Every mean or back handed comment helped me dig that little bit deeper. So if you've already subscribed I honestly am so happy that you did and really truly from the bottom of my heart thank you. And what I'm planning on sharing over there regarding energy, vibration, frequency and pretty much all the workings of the Universe that I write on this blog. Is going to improve lives. It's going to change lives and get anyone feeling stuck in a rut or like they don't know what to do - it's going to give tools of hope, empowerment and that there is another way to life. I just had to become ready to do this and my own journey 0-1k was about becoming. I quickly realised that it wasn't about the end goal. The growth was in the journey.
Starting a channel with zero knowledge of YouTube was a big one. As a main goal that if you follow this blog will know was something of a personal milestone I'd set myself when I started the channel almost one year earlier. I wrote a blog post about why I was starting a channel at 40 here. Also my main main goal really was to start earning another online income. And I still believe YT is the easiest and best way for anyone to start earning online.
Here's something else: it's estimated to be less than 1% to 3% of all active channels, or approximately 2 million channels out of the 50-60 million considered active that are monetized which means I'm very proud to be in this category. And in all, it took me 1 year to get monetized.
I'm taking a moment to feel proud and I can share the the one guarantee that ensured this success: And that was not giving up. Carrying on and continuing through any fear, carrying on through the unknowing, the uncertainty and sometimes quite honestly feeling like a bit of a wally on camera. But now I'm a wally that's monetized and it makes being a wally much easier let me tell you.
So, Why did I start a YouTube Channel : as a shy introverted mum of 40 something?
I was going through a spiritual awakening and this had come after living with depression for most of my adult life and functioning with it, self healing from 20 years of depression, in what felt like almost no time at all, which had led us to sell up our old lives in the UK and take 1 way tickets to Bali and worldschooling with our 2 kids. The plan was that we'd be based in Bali and then slow travel around South East Asia. And that's where we are right now almost 2 years in on the adventure building our beautiful house in Bali (we bought some land) and helping others raise their vibration, find their peace, practice Self Love and find their true selves which in turn helps them manifest, create like the conscious creators we truly are. When we are aligned with the correct energy and frequency.
Personally I wanted to challenge myself fully in a way that nothing else could. I'd lived a lifetime of mental health problems which were no more for me. I was actually a little overweight too. Unhappy with myself. Just generally even though I was no longer depressed and at suicides door. I was a version of my self that was 'becoming' but was definitely not a finished project. I still had low self worth, low self esteem that on the surface wasn't there any more it was more of a subconscious levelling up that I needed. I was happy, feeling confident in my own skin for once in my life and getting stronger everyday. I had wanted to disappear for most of my life, I didn't want people to see me, notice me, comment on me. Even in the street - I walked with my head down NEVER looking at people - I didn't want to see them, notice them. I didn't want them to see me. And I still did this (even in Bali) I was much happier hidden away at home. It was a safe place where I didn't have to face judgement. The judgement was never from other people. It was a reflection of my own self and what I thought about myself. And even though I'd been brave. My healing journey was continuing in Bali and if I stopped here. I too would stop there. These subconscious things were still with me. My subconscious incorrect identification with who I thought I was stopping me from doing things and truly stepping into this high frequency self and life.
I had no self love, self care, self anything still - even though i'd healed from depression. I was technically still the same person, identifying with an old me and I knew that would give me the same predictable outcomes (even in Bali). And this was all deep rooted within me. From my own work in helping other people I knew that I had to face my own shadows - the things that were hidden in my subconscious - deep beliefs (that were not true btw) your shadows never are (shadow work). They are picked up programmes from the 3d matrix that we took on as ourselves and internalised to become the identity that we have of ourselves. And depending on what these programmes taught us as we were growing up, they are mostly, self limiting, self sabotaging and stop us from living the life we deserve. They limit us from allowing happiness or allowing in the life of our dreams. The saddest part of this is that we do this to ourselves, because we ALLOW these programmes to run, when they are untrue, incorrect and not even real. we allow them to become real because we experienced them and feel like they are real truths about ourselves. We give our power away and become power-less. That's the lie.
These were very deeply rooted in me after 20 years of depression. I'd healed the depression but had beliefs about who I was at the core of me that I needed to re-boot. Programmes that literally needed un-installing. And I needed something huge to jolt me into getting rid of these limiting self beliefs. A little like moving 8k miles across the world will give you the physical space to look at your shadows to give you the space to see reality for what it is and see yourself for what it truly is. Starting a YouTube channel for a shy introverted person that doesn't feel worthy or good enough will do this for you too.
I wanted to collapse fear, collapse not feeling good enough, and collapse not feeling worthy. I 'knew' them not to be true. But yet somehow the old me was still limiting myself. And I knew from experience that the only true way to do this is to face fear head on.
We'd taken very big life changing steps and the channel was a logical next step topics and going to be where I recorded my/our travel journey. BUT when I started the channel I was stuck in real and very present fear. And hear me out with this one. Every body feels fear when starting their own channel. It's normal and part and parcel of the whole thing. It takes you out of your old comfort zones (or traps of limitations as I call them) and forces you to face fear head on. It really is brave and I'm not going to sugar coat any of this: if you are thinking of starting a channel and are scared, then this fear is real and wont go away UNLESS you face it and start the bloody thing. But I was facing a very real fear of the topic / content I was doing these videos on (our Bali / travel life) and I was living in fear everyday with whether we'd done the right thing, whether the kids were happy and really just overthinking our daily life stuff. I was still living in feelings of fear and scarcity. I hadn't shifted this UK life at all. And so I was ready to face this head on and start learning to live with a safe CNS, to start living in abundance, safety, worthiness, and that I was good enough. And the only way I knew how to challenge myself was to throw myself to the lions. And do the very thing the old me would absolutely hate: To be seen.
Starting something is a powerful thing. This burst of starting energy is like birthing the embryo of potential. It's a spark of momentous energy. Taking your own power back and stepping into a new timeline of your future self. And my only advice on all of the imposter syndrome doubts that creep in, the over thinking, the self sabotaging thoughts is to JUST START, Then JUST DO. Otherwise if you don't take this action you will forever be wanting to start that thing and still stay as the person you are, in the timeline that you are in, just wishing that you had started. And so I had started my own channel in Sept 2024. I could figure the rest out as I went. And that's the journey.
See my very first video below - it's not great - I actually put doing this video off many times, until I saw my kids just looking at me and sympathising with my nervousness and overthinkingness but yet having a glimmer of sadness in their eyes. It looked like disappointment to me. And I couldn't have that.
So the night before this video I cried. Yes as a 40 year old woman of the world that had seen things in her life actually cried over the fear of making her first video. Because I was scared and I didn't want to do it. I didn't even want a YouTube channel anyway. Sounds crazy and a little pathetic when I write this now seeing how something so small felt so big to me back then. But mostly at the time actually I cried for the person that I'd become and I was sad that I was at this point. I'd overcome life debilitating-suicidal at times-depression, I'd faced so much true fear in my childhood, I'd done really brave stuff in life, I'd moved my family 8k miles away from home truly believing that it was for a better life and I'd done all these things, yet I was shaking and feeling sick about making a video. And so after a cry I had to pull my boots up and make the god damned first video.
Here's My First YouTube Video - my swollen face was because I cried the night before
Then after the first video, I'm pleased to report that some of that fear disappears and you feel liberated and like you really could do the whole making a video thing again. And then comes the video topic. What would I do for my second video? And so it kind of went like this for a few months. Not being really sure what I was doing, nor what people wanted, nor knowing what did well and what didn't. But turning up doing a weekly video and trying to build some momentum, making friends on the channel and gaining subscribers.
I'd started doing a weekly update video of the growth of the channel sharing what I'd learned that week in the hope that it would help others in a similar position to crush their YouTube goals and start their own income stream. In truth, my beating the algo hacks, changing settings here and there didn't really work. They'd work when I found them and I shared them but then they made no real difference overall. Check out my first 7 weeks YouTube progress videos here. But here's where I stopped making these videos - because I didn't know what I was doing by this point.
I'd got myself into Overthinking territory, where I was starting to not enjoy making these videos. So after 3 months I stopped making videos and tried to get back on track with my own personal life behind the scenes. We were still travelling, still having huge life changes and I was feeling like I was not in a position to talk about my life because it was so up / so topsy turvy and so changey. I wasn't keeping in touch with friends / family and was feeling very lost and mostly like 'what the hell have we done' the last thing I wanted to do was to make videos on this stuff. And so my content stopped. And even worse I didn't know what I was going to make videos on going forward.
What does YouTube Require for Monetization?
A big reason for starting the channel was to become monetized. To start earning for the videos and content I would eventually be putting out. We work remotely and online so another income stream would be welcome. Diversifying is key to making a freedom life work. Earning passively whilst we sleep - and YouTube does that. In fact it's one of the best ways in my opinion to earn online. We create a video and then it earns for the rest of that videos life.
To become monetized on YouTube you need to have 1000 subscribers AND 4000 Watch Time Hours in a year time period.
I hit the watch time hours on the channel after just 6 months of being on YouTube it was the subscribers that took longer for me. It was this video that did really well and ended up taking me over the watch time hours:
You can see from this video I'm finding my feet a little bit more. Being more like myself and not overthinking the videos. I'm just travelling and recording bits of that life and putting it into a video. Easy right?
Well still not so easy for me. I was doing content that I was not really so passionate about. I love travel - but that's my life. And in my life I do want a private life (especially with kids). I also don't feel as though my travel videos help people. I was finding that I was delaying putting content out because I didn't want people to know my exact location and so my content was not flowing with life. I really wanted flow with the channel, for it to move in sync with me and the things I was overcoming or doing at the moment on my healing life journey that could truly help someone. I actually have a burning desire to help people and really if I was going to make YouTube a role similar to a job that I loved doing I knew that I had to pivot into helping people and to make that change. And here comes the self sabotaging and self limiting beliefs again. In as far as 'who do you think you are to make videos on this stuff' ; 'who's going to listen / watch'.
At this point I was just at around 800 subscribers.
My Zero to 1k Subscriber Journey
I notice that every time I want to change something or do something different with my channel that it brings up every gremlin within. Every hidden block that I had and thought I'd worked through. And this is something that I'm coming to accept with the channel. It's a personal challenge until one day these things are just not things any more. They don't exist within my self identity, not even a little to re-surface. So I constantly must keep going and keep slaying every demon that crops up.
I really could type and talk fro hours on what starting this YouTube channel has done for me.
It's been quite life changing. Every video I make I step further into the person that I want to be. And I want to share with others how they too can step into the version of themselves that they may want to be and just how easy it is to do. And just how difficult it can be. But it doesn't have to be.
I've had to turn up in ways that I didn't expect. I knew turning up physically to do the videos was obvious. And that takes effort - when you know you'll put a lot of effort in and get hardly any views or growth. This takes real effort. You cannot just stop doing the videos because the growth stops. You must do the videos.
BUT I didn't realise the ways in which it would challenge and grow me and how in order to grow the channel I would have to face my shadows head on, time and time again and I did these for me. Every time I showed up, overcame, faced fear, went in blind, felt clueless, felt stupid, felt worthless, felt as though I wasn't good enough, felt unworthy - I faced it all as defiant little acts of self love.
Showing up for myself has been the biggest thing I've learned through getting to 1k subscribers. I challenged myself in ways that the old me would never have done. Firstly she'd have never set a camera up, pressed play and talked to it. EVER. Because she never thought she was good enough, brave enough, anything of anything enough to do that. She was. I was. I AM!
To do these videos I've had to become someone else. But that was my whole goal: To become someone that Loves herself, that thinks she's worthy, that not just thinks knows at her very essence that she is enough and it doesn't matter how many likes/dislikes/subscribers/growth.
0-1k was growth.
But the growth was personal.
It was never about the goal as I originally thought it was. It was never about the numbers, the subscribers, the money. It was always about the journey.
And even though I didn't know it at the beginning - I was already enough. It took me the journey to realise this. Which is why I can tell you now that I know for certain that YOU ARE Already ENOUGH.
Any way the YouTube Channel going forward is going to less of my travel life and more of the topics on this blog. The tools and things that people can use to raise their vibration, truths that let them understand their true selves (not the bullshit that we surround ourselves with pardon my French) - the false programmes, the I'm not good enoughs, the I'm not enoughs, people will judge me, who do I think I am to want more etc etc ) I know every single person reading this will relate in some way to this internal voice. And that keeps us stuck doing the same things and getting the same outcomes in life. And I also know how to stop it. How energy and vibration works in relation to The Universe and how to tap into a source of energy so powerful it creates worlds - that once you know it - align with it - you can create form, matter, stuff from thought alone. And so if you love that stuff give us a subscribe because what I'm sharing changes lives.
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