How I Would Learn Video Editing If I Had To Start Over

I've been editing full-time for close to 7 years now I've worked with some of the biggest YouTube creators and made over $10,000 a month with video editing but I've made a ton of mistakes which is why I'll take all of those and share with you Seven Pillars of how I would learn video editing if I had to start over from scratch so the first point or pillar one if you will the first thing I would have done differently is probably to not spend as much time trying to get really good at video editing like the

technical parts of it I I remember I was trying to watch like every single YouTube tutorial on how to make a video and know about every single feature and every animation and title creation possible you name it and the funny thing is still to this day I've not used like 70% of those learnings into in the real world as an editor so instead what I would do now is just get good enough to be able to put a pretty decent video out and then I would learn anything extra on the spot when needed I mean

to be honest this is kind of what I do most of the time anyways for example if you're editing a video and and the client wants a 3D camera panning in on an AI generated image then I would just YouTube this on how to create it and how to do it and then find the exact video I need and just follow it step by step on the spot instead of stressing about learning every single thing in the world before getting a client there is however a couple really important fundamental techniques that you really do need

to know in order to take your basic edits from beginner to truly a masterpiece a jaw dropping piece of work and it isn't by learning these crazy 3D tracking or motion graphic or animations or anything like that in fact this is something I've learned from one of the editors who edits for yes Theory and Johnny Harris's Channel this is also something I make sure I do in every single one of my videos including this one and if you want to check out what exactly I'm talking about then you can go over this in-depth in my

school Community all about helping editors get their first client in 30 days or less I'll actually leave a link below this video for you if you want to check it out anyways pillar two are the next point and this might sound very relatable to some of you out there but for a while I tried getting work but at the same time I also kind of avoided it too let let me explain so I would send out an Outreach message to a potential client here and there but the problem was as actively as I was trying

to get a client which wasn't that active I was equally avoiding it why was I doing this you're probably wondering well the same reason those of you who do this likely are see it really just stems from a lack of confidence and at the end of the day fear you see I had a fear of taking someone's money for a service that I had never charged for before and that can be a really scary thing and even though I was more than good enough to do so I didn't feel like it so what would I

do if I started over today well if I had no clients yet the first thing I would do is I would spend I would dedicate 4 to 5 hours a day doing cold Outreach to potential clients to land my first client hopefully within a week's time then once I get at least one client on the hook and I still felt fear about trading money for my service or I was uncertain about charging cuz I have never maybe done it before then I would offer the first video completely for free to take away all risk to

both myself and the client but I would make sure this is very important that we agree that any future projects assuming that they like this video that we're doing for free are to be paid for in the future it's almost like a free trial if you will now the next pillar pillar three or the next thing that I would have done I've noticed over the years that like literally 99% of editors view themselves as a lowincome commone tized starving artist kind of person I did fall victim to this for a while I'll admit I fell

into a victimized mindset of it not being possible to make a lot of money with video editing and instead it's kind of just like a passion that needs to drive me instead of money and I couldn't have been further from the truth see it took a serious burnout in me temporarily quitting as an editor for me to find the solution to this problem now having experienced this if I were to start again from scratch today I would treat video editing as an actual business because at the end of the day we trade services for money

we're a business I would learn everything I could about running a business creating offers Marketing sales you name it I would Deep dive into Experts of each in each of these fields and I would apply these learnings into my editing business and that's exactly what I've done personally and again if you want to know how to do this yourself then you could visit my school Community it's the first link in the description below but if you don't want to do that I highly recommend the following list of amazing book recommendations that helped me a ton

and I know they could help you too if you listen to them and apply them in your own business now the books I highly recommend are $100 million offers by Alex Heros followed up by $100 million leads by Alex Heros followed by a Atomic Habits by James clear and then finally Gap selling by Keenan these four books will absolutely set you up on your way to become a successful editing business okay pillar four or the fourth point something I did when I was starting out was I would go whole weeks literally without editing anything cuz

I just didn't have any clients I thought my rookie mindset that I should only be editing or creating if I'm getting paid to do so and this is just one embarrassing to say but also ego itical and ridiculous if I were starting over as I said earlier the first thing I would do is spend the first 4 to 5 hours of each working day doing Outreach to actively get clients but with the rest of the time I have in the day I wouldn't just sit on my hands and do nothing I would be actively creating

and experimenting with my own content in fact a great way to do this would be to start your own YouTube channel it could build a personal brand end up turning into a business you're and you're also practicing the craft that you're trying to get paid for it could even be something like a faceless documentary type of YouTube channel as these kind of help you improve very quickly because well why because for these channels you need to be really good at storytelling or at least practice to get to that point and they require a lot of

editing so it's kind of the perfect channel to start now I would also be consuming and be very very careful with this I would set a maximum of 1 hour a day and just consume I wouldn't be mindlessly consuming Tik Tok or anything like that it has to be a methodical kind of consumption that can allow me or you in this case to better your business skills or to better your editing skills so an example of this could be watching one to two episodes of something like the the editing podcast that's a great way to

consume content and learn more about your craft and Industry that you're in okay pillar five the fifth point now it can be very typical that a lot of editors get really out of shape I'm generalizing here uh gain weight become overall just very unhealthy now this is because there's a stereotype it's a stereotype for a reason and that's that video editors just lock yourself in a dark room they eat and drink all day and they stay basically seated it all day and do nothing else but I'll tell you right now nothing will make you a

worse editor faster than doing this and take it from me I know because I did it for 2 years straight I got fat my mental Clarity was horrible it went to trash and it also affected affected me creatively I started not only disliking myself but Al I began to hate editing for being the reason that I ended up in this mess in the first place luckily I changed things now what I would do if I started over from scratch is I would focus on taking my health better sooner I would do what I do now

which is I always edit with Windows or some sort of sunlight coming in to ensure I'm not blacking out the room and making things feel super depressing I'm getting some good light in I highly recommend using something like a sit stand desk however if you don't have one or you can't afford it then simply just get up for a short walk or just stand for a few minutes every 30 to 40 minutes or even better go for a walk outside get some fresh air for 10 minutes every hour or so my favorite thing to do

is actually to work out to run and to walk and kind of balance all those in my day so 5 days a week what I'm doing is strength training I do long runs 4 days a week cuz since I'm training for a marathon and then I go for at least 13 minute walk a day just to get some sunlight out maybe that's with my dogs or whatever and I know it might sound like a lot and if that sounds like a lot to you then just start with the walks maybe some strength training at least

one to two days a week because those have some great benefits now the final point on this eat healthier I know junk food is so much easier to eat but the clarity and energy that you get when you eat good foods outstanding it actually is mindblowing not to mention getting a good physical physique and good mental health is kind of a given when you eat good and work out correctly okay so next is pillar six the final pillar and as video editors 100% of our job is online right on a laptop which means we have

the web at our fingertips which is not always a good thing this can lead to hours into hours of mindless procrastination and consumption so you need to be a very self-disciplined person when I didn't want to do a project or I was avoiding an edit or avoiding to get started I would watch a movie or hours and hours of YouTube content and then run the clock out and then have to pull an all nighter to get that project done which also was not healthy for my marriage it was unhealthy and terrible for my health my

mental health and my relationship so if I was starting from scratch the first thing I would do is begin to set clear guidelines on my work I'd use something called the pomodora technique to help me get started during those times where I wanted to just avoid the work and procrastinate by the way a pomodora technique is simply just setting a timer for 30 minutes and then forcing yourself to do what you're avoiding only for those 30 minutes then you can let yourself stop but most most of the time I kind of get into a flow

within that 30 minutes and I just keep the clock going and keep working I would also have a hard cut off time for my work every day maybe around 600 700 p.m. to be able to spend either bettering yourself if you're single or if you're a family man like me with kids and a wife then use that time to build your relationships with them it's this balance that allows you to approach your editing work and your business with fresh eyes a healthier perspective and an overall balanced view honestly when planning this video those were the

six most important and intrusive thoughts or points that came into my mind if I had to start all over again from scratch and things that I wish I could tell my younger self when getting into this industry so I hope this broke some of your limiting beliefs and helped open your eyes to some new approaches to go about your editing and your business and listen I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this below so let me know what you think let me know if you try any of these out and how it works

for you and oh remember I'm rooting for you oh [Applause] [Music]