Tell us a bit about yourself, what's your background?
I am Aman (The Chopster) and to be real with you I don't know myself yet. However, this is howI would usually introduce myself - I am currently a student, YouTuber and speaking coach. I have grown up living all over the world from a young age, which has given me a highly globalized mindset alongside a long history of traveling the world (at least until the recent past)I was a part of PTYA cohort 2 and ever since taking the course the title of "YouTuber" & "Speaking Coach" have been added to my background.
My main goal with my channel is to showcase my personality. I want to use the medium to express myself through my love for human interaction, comedy and globalization. On my channel I strive for 50% stupidity and 50% necessity, I see life as a balance where I appreciate seeking and sharing knowledge whilst enjoying the silly things that happen.
Why did you set up a YouTube channel? What motivated you to get started?
I have been watching YouTube since 2008 and I remember as a child when I moved to the Middle East, I got access to an international group of friends along with easy internet access. This was different to the resources I had access to while living in India before. All we did in my school was talk about YouTubers, whether they were gamers, vloggers or prank channels. To me that was fascinating. My school had 90+ nationalities, yet we were all connecting on the common subject of YouTube regardless of our cultural upbringing.
This concept of universal consumption was intriguing and as a child I wanted to be a part of it. I always saw myself as someone who would love being on YouTube. Since my childhood, I have always had the ability to connect with most individuals regardless of their age, belief system or nationality. I always knew that my personality had some universal aspects to it but I was never sure how I could channelize it in my early teenage years. I would often tell myself every year that I could be a YouTuber.
However, one my friends started a channel during that time and the whole school would make fun of him. I was incredibly fearful of what others would think of me back then, so I ran away from the idea of YouTube completely. Instead, I put my mind into my education and focused on getting good grades and finding a job years later. Basically, doing as I was told. It sucked.There was always a lingering thought all these years with a deep desire to pursue YouTube. After getting a degree and working a job I have realized that YouTube should have been the pathI took all those years ago. And here we are, 13 years later, I have motivated myself to start a YouTube channel while doing school and work stuff on the side.
Tell us about your journey on the platform so far.
I wouldn't describe YouTube as my passion currently. I consider it to be similar to the gym - I have to get my workout in every week (upload a video). Whether it is a crap workout or a great one, I have to hit the gym. It is in the early stages and boy, it's unbelievably difficult. Similar to the gym, I am worried about people judging me for not lifting heavy enough or laughing at my form. Yet, I know for a fact that it is good for me and it has to be done.
The payoff is invaluable. Overtime I have no doubt that my discomfort with YouTube will become more of a strength or even a passion. I haven't even hit 100 subs yet but I know that YouTube is giving me an identity,a form of self-discovery and my niche will bloom to pave its own path through this process. Consistency must be maintained in the beginning.
What has having a channel allowed you to do? What have been the second order effects of starting your YouTube journey?
The key to my growth has been down to two main things.
Having a channel has self-introspection, I am able to understand myself a lot deeper than before. Who am I? What do I like? What do I actually want to make? With the YouTube community I get instant feedback, I am able to recognize what about me is standing out and what isn't.
Additionally, I am able to see the overlap between my perceived strengths and my personal interests while creating. Additionally, having a channel has revealed my passion for speaking and presenting which in turn has opened some amazing opportunities for me in a short period of time. 3 months into my YouTube journey, I have become a speaking coach for this amazing company called Ultrapseaking, who also run a sensational cohort-based course similar to PTYA.
Moreover, I recently moved to New York City for my further education and landed an exciting on-campus-role as a broadcasting presenter where a get to interview great minds whilst being theface of the school whether it's on a livestream, podcast or an informational video. I attribute all these opportunities to the consistent uploads and my content library on YouTube over the past 6 months.
Do you think you need thousands of subscribers for YouTube to change your life?
Well, I am currently at 90 subs and my life has transformed considerably. That being said, this is just the beginning. If this is what 90 subs can get me, I wonder what thousands can do to my life. Every audience is different and subscribers are simply a tiny metric. I would put more emphasis focusing on my personal growth with my content and all the other benefits of my YouTube channel will simply follow.
As I said earlier, this journey is a minimum of 3 years and if I am still at 90 subs 3 years from now, then I can start complaining. Till then, I stay consistent. Although, I know this for sure – whether I am successful or not on the platform, YouTube journey will add immense value to my life. More than it already has.
What’s been key to your growth outside of YouTube? How has YouTube helped?
As mentioned earlier YouTube has given me the gift of self-discovery. I am not there yet, but with every video I create I am able to understand myself better. I am able to pin down on what my true interests are, YouTube is my gym and I am growing over here.
In my current stage on YouTube, I get to be a jack of all trades – I get to write, edit, speak, record understand all sorts of creativity and technicalities. YouTube has simply given me a platform. Apart from the platform I have connected some great friends and interacted with some wonderful minds within our online community who I would have never met otherwise. And I amonly 6 months in. That’s crazy!
What are your goals for the future? How have your goals changed?
I am not going to stop YouTube, but my current goal is to develop authenticity and comfort within myself. There have been multiple moments where my close friends and loved ones share that I am not myself on YouTube, which is true to a large degree. My goal is to develop authenticity on camera, be comfortable in my own skin so I can showcase my true personality online overtime.
The best part about all of this is that I don’t know what the future holds. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would become a speaking coach and here I am a few months in through YouTube. My current goal is to double down on myself because there is something wonderful deep in there. YouTube will play a major role in helping me discover my gifts so I can share them with our wonderful world.The best part about all of this is that I don’t know what the future holds. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would become a speaking coach and here I am a few months in through YouTube.
My current goal is to double down on myself because there is something wonderful deep in there. YouTube will play a major role in helping me discover my gifts so I can share them with our wonderful world.
Would you do anything differently if you were to start again?
I would start earlier. If I have to go again, I would start right away. The paralysis of analysis is the enemy, most of the answers in this journey come through the consistent uploads. YouTube is a self-discovery process in my eyes and I wish I gave myself the permission to discover myself earlier rather than always worrying about what others would think.
I would also focus on quantity in the beginning rather than quality. All my first videos suck, in fact the most recent videos suck too. But I know that video #30 is better than #7. What matters is that I am getting better and my quality will shine overtime. Avoid the paralysis of analysis, JUST DO IT!
One piece of advice for YouTubers just starting out?
Start NOW. Join communities such as PTYA where there's a lot of guidance and moral support. Also remember, I am not even at 100 subs and I have been doing this for 6 months - the growth is slooooooooowwww. If I could put more o's I would.
Don't compare yourself to others, You are YOU and there is no one like you, so leverage that. Only 6 months in YouTube have given me options that I would have never considered, those options might be something completely different for you. But you will gain something out of this journey so keep moving and keep pushing. Hang in there! We're all in this together.
Where can we go to learn more about you?
My name on YouTube and across all the socials is "The Chopster" you should be able to find me with that name almost everywhere. I am not frequent on my socials but you can find me @thechopstr on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for now. Hope to be posting there consistently in the long run.
How did PTYA help you?
I am building a personalized online ecosystem and PTYA was the first seed that was planted in my ecosystem.
PTYA gave me the water, soil and sunlight to start this all. The course gave me the means to think ahead, consider all the possibilities coming my way.
PTYA normalized my dreams for me and it has been the catalyst to all of these amazing experiences.And you know what the best part is? I am just getting started. Thank you to everyone at PTYA.
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