We did it!

The merit of all things lies in their difficulty.

I started the This is E channel in May 2016, uploading sporadically. Since I had no idea what I wanted to upload videos about, initially, I was riding the Casey Neistat wave, creating random vlogs. The reason I started the channel was as a means to escape reality. I wanted to channel my creative cravings somewhere. I remember it taking a week to have the guts to publish the very first video (which is now no longer up because it was taken down for music copyright issues 😂). I was afraid of getting laughed at, but in reality, I was more fearful of getting judged. Little did I know that the world didn't care about my first video.

Seven months after that first video, I decided to post a review of a piece of gear I had purchased. I was honestly running out of ideas on what to vlog about, plus it was freezing outside, so I decided to try the tech review approach. There was no script, no lighting, and zero knowledge of the item in front of me. Looking at the video now - it's a cringe-fest 😬 In all fairness, the video did perform 10x better than any previous vlog uploads. On the other hand, the process of creating it gave me a taste of what it is to be a reviewer, and after that point, I knew I wanted to focus on that.

For the next two years, I was all over the place in terms of content focus. I was shooting desk accessories, Apple-related content, Android devices, monitors, and anything any company would send me. I bought Android devices I could barely afford, only to sell them one video later at a terrible loss. What an idiot 🤦🏻‍♂️

It took me a year to realize that I have no interest in creating Android-related content and another year to dial down my interests. It wasn't until September 2019 that I decided to focus on the craft and potentially turn it into a business.

I can't tell you how many times I doubted whether or not I should keep doing what I was doing. There was a period when I quit YouTube every time I posted something, only to come back to it the next day. If there was one thing for certain, it was the passion for the art. All the layers of being a creator (communication, research, scripting, shooting, editing, graphic work, SEO, social media, newsletters, merch) could be occupations on their own, yet balancing them all at the same time is what I love the most. There's no limit to what you can learn and improve in any of the layers as time passes. You can be as great as your imagination and as mediocre as your constraints.

We are now at 100,000 subscribers! It's surreal, exciting, and frightening at the same time. It's scary because it could be detrimental. It's a goal and a dream for many, and once you reach it, you feel like you've crossed the 13.1 miles half-marathon line, feeling exhausted and gasping for a break. The problem is that it's not a half-marathon. It's an ultramarathon, and there are more than 26 miles in it. In fact, there’s no finish line. So what do we do? We take a sip of water and keep up with the pace, grateful that the legs are still kicking because…WHY NOT?!?

Thank you, y'all ❤️