TL;DR No laugh = No subscribe
I’m on a mission to monetize my personal brand YouTube channel – as part of a larger ambition – using short-form videos. That’s the entire formula (kinda): post stuff that is relatably rational but doesn’t take a lot of words to digest which reduces my editing time, which reduces the likelihood I burnout, lose interest, and abandon the task. All wins.
Hard Truths’ origin story
The first round of short videos comes from a running list of lists. Two weeks ago, I began posting videos from a list I started years before I left active duty in 2018. In the iPhone Notes app, I called the list “Hard Truths and Facts of Life”. I maintained a mutual agreement with myself that the name is bad and will be changed. “Surely, this working title is too long but also very accurate,” I scoffed. “It is! Both things are true, and don’t call me Shirley,” said other me.
Sometime in 2024, I changed the title to a condensed “Hard Truths and Facts about Life” because I didn’t want to compete for SEO with the cast of lovable characters on the sitcom that gave us Kim Fields. I also decided the length of the title is part of the gag, and it’s still short enough to be memorable. It’s got a…cadence to it.
This post also celebrates my doing something on the internet for 10 consecutive days, and I feel great pride about that milestone. I even feel inspired to keep a streak going. Also, I appreciate the challenge of mastering video editing.🎉
The list(s) goes on
If you haven’t been introduced to my sense of humor, we should hang out more. If you enjoyed a lot of TV in the 80s/90s and require satire injections to live, we probably “get each other”. Please do not do the subscribe-by-association thing. I feel strongly content with my brand of humor will organically reach it’s most engaging audience i.e. I’m tryin’ to see somethin’.
I expand on the argument against “sympathy subs” in Hard Truth #59 (in draft, posting April 2025) #spoiler :
“Your friend, co-worker, or family member hasn’t betrayed you because they didn’t buy your product or service – or because they didn’t share or subscribe to your content. They’re not partakers because they’re not your target audience. They’re still on your team. What you’re offering is not for them, and that’s OK.”
Hard Truths and ‘Facts’ about Life video series by Michael P. Wright
Hard Truths and Facts about Life is family-friendly and fun for me. Enjoy the clips: