Who else has said "I just want to create for myself." 🙋‍♂️learn from my mistakes.

I respect your opinion, but thats exactly whats wrong with youtube, everyone fights over the audience and looks of what works and tries to mimick because that draws the crowd. Artistic and truly unique and inspiring work doesnt come from trying to please the crowd.

I wouldn't say creating for yourself is stupid; I create videos knowing one day I'll be much older and in completely different circumstances... and when that time comes I'll be able to look back and see how far I've come. I think in order to give your best to the world, you gotta do what's right by you too. I say create whatever the heck you want, and if you help others along the way, EVEN BETTER!! There's nothing wrong with creating merely because you enjoy it!

Love this video! Great reminder to revisit your "why". When your "why" is money, there will never be enough. When your "why" is fame from the opinions of others it is too fleeting and opinions can change. When your "why" is adding value to people, it is a purpose that can sustain you.

Not really sure how to feel about this. You definitely have a point from a business perspective. But if you have a passion for it, this might be dangerous advice. I almost burned out last year creating for others, because I wasn't creating "for myself". I worked on projects that were important to others and payed well, but I couldn't bring to life what I really loved. And it wasn't even completely out of my field of interest. This way you might make money, but you won't reach longevity. I guess the key is to do some work, that you create for others, and some work that you create for yourself. Idealy, you come to a point in your career where you can combine both. But I think that's an important thing to keep in mind.

Disagree, creating for yourself helps fulfill that creative itch to get you through the times where you're creating for money. It staves off burnout, reignites passion and allows you to have full creative freedom. The mistake is creating for yourself 100% and expecting the same monetary reward that comes from creating for others. The solution is to strike a happy balance of doing what you want to do some times and appeasing the audience most of the time.

Am I the only one with goosebumps at the end ? The audio switch was the icing.

I like this video so much!! Helping ppl to Make myself happier 💋

It’s not about creating for “myself” but rather making work that I want and that I think is interesting rather than what a client is asking for.

You hit the nail on the head with this one! I felt this 1 heavy!

Great video, Matti! I started to watching your channel early on along with Peter’s. I couldn’t get enough because I learned so much from you guys that launched my career. It was kind of sad to me to hear you and Pete say that you don’t want to do tutorials anymore because that was such a strong area of content you both have. Lots of people can teach a skill, but few can teach in a way that keeps our attention the way you guys did. I feel like there is still a lot that I can learn from you in story telling, lighting, composition, b roll, how you use your camera, and even documentary (like Mark Bone). The value you have given us is the reason I continue to follow you and I hope to keep learning more from your channel.

Thank you Matti! In this one short video you removed the barrier that's stood between me and starting my KZfaq channel for a while now. I just needed to hear this and shift my primary focus from my image and earnings to full on service, and suddenly I see how it's gonna work as a business. Thank you for stripping it down to the basics, man! 😊 👍🏾

I guess you listened to the feedback from your questions here on YT..!! Happy to have you back and I enjoyed this video.

I think it really depends on what your definition of “create for yourself” is. In my mind, “creating for myself” has always meant creating content both because I like it, but also for the impact on others. But even though I may be doing it to impact others, that’s what I enjoy doing, so I’m still doing it for myself.

Thank you Matti, I really needed to hear this. I’m 19 years old and I used to upload on KZfaq often, but over the last few years I have kind of hid away and mostly created for myself to try to work on my skills. I’ve definitely gotten better at my craft, but I feel like I missed out on sharing and creating for an audience. Now I am going to start a freelance filmmaking business soon and I am having to shift my mindset back on creating for others. It’s been tough but I’ve forgot how enjoyable it really is. Being able to make someone else happy with your work is such an amazing feeling. Even the factor of having more than one person’s mind coming up with new ideas is so much more efficient and fun than creating by yourself. Anyways thank you for posting this Matti, wise words and great video.

A lot of points made in this video! A paradigm shift! Btw, I love how you started cutting your videos and using so much more of your space. It keeps the engagement up!

I’m guilty of this, but in reverse. My whole idea behind my channel (a first person hiking and walking channel) started because I wanted to create videos for my mom (who was handicapped) and my dad (who has COPD) and anyone else who enjoyed these type of videos. A simple trail guide in video format that showed what trails were like at that time and season. Then I started to try and create something that left my purpose behind, and create cinematic hiking videos, simply because I saw what the successful hiking and walking channels were doing. But, my videos were just very poor imitations of channels like Adventure Archives. It left my personal touch behind, and lost my purpose. Instead of focusing on the hiking experience, I was focusing on myself. I wasn’t happy. I was just focused on trying to grow my channel. My hobby became unsatisfying. Then I deleted all of my “cinematic” attempts, and just decided to focus on first person hiking and walking guides. Kind of like a trail guide book only in video format. I’m a lot happier, and more inspired to get out and film more, to bring an experience to those who may not be physically able to experience a simple walk in the woods or hike a nationally renowned trail. I realized my channel will never grow to the heights of 99% of other KZfaq channels, but my goal brings me purpose, which my purpose instills in me the passion to keep creating, even if I never grow beyond 100 subscribers.

At first I was like what the heck Matti, but I get it. It’s important to see your creative career as an actual business, and to then focus on meeting others’ needs through that creative business. He’s not saying that creating for yourself is bad, he’s saying that having a creative business where you only create for yourself is detrimental to being a successful business. Good insight ✌🏾

Solid video man! There's a huge difference between wanting to make KZfaq videos and actually wanting to make money off of KZfaq! One is for fun the other is a business and as such needs to be treated as a business!

Counter argument: Have you read “Audience of one” you are your most important audience…ironically I strongly agree with both arguments…so together it’s kinda like/ create for your audience, entertain them, educate them, but YOU are always the most important audience

This is so true. At some point you also need to accept that your content should appeal to your audience. You need to know your "WHO" and what they connect with if you want to be successful.👍👍👍

What?! That was so dope! What a cool perspective, thanks for brining that to light. I do get stuck quite often on "oh, I don't care if this doesn't offer any value it looks sick so I'm going to share it." But it doesn't make me feel as good as the stuff that I do that doesn't look as good but can offer some value to the people watching.

WOW! Such a great perspective, Matti! Thanks for sharing and helping me re-frame my mindset.

I love your approach to life Matti. Oh that song at the end I cannot get enough of

Don’t have idea of how much I needed this video right now. Helping others is way much satisfying. That’s the key of a happy life. Thank you, Matti, from Mexico 🇲🇽

Matti, your message in this episode couldn’t have been more well-timed in my own KZfaq/Social Media journey. The honeymoon is over and I’m at that crossroad trying to find that balance between creator and content provider. Having a day job takes some of the money out of the equation, but it doesn’t change the formula for success. You reminded me of what makes us happy… and that is helping others. As always, thats for you open and frank style.

Really love your latest videos & the 'new' direction you're taking - helping me a lot too...

Thank you so much for this Matti! It's a GREAT reminder for all of us creators

A really good message to learn from. I did hear and read about things related to what you’ve said before, but didn’t know when that should be used. You’ve reminded me of those sayings from the past and revived me from a wrong goal. I hope I remember this in the future and serve/give to others.

WOW! Great advice and also a very humble video. Bravo Matti!

A superbly timed video, thanks Matti. You helped me, I liked and shared this. All good!

Just crushing it! All these new vids have really spoken to me. 110% love the new direction

You're the man Matti! Keep up the good work, appreciate you!

Needed this 🙌🙌

One of the best advices I've ever heard, thank you so much for this Matti. Keep up the good work!

A really thought-provoking video - and brave. Love it. Thanks Matti

I really agree on the aspect that it is better to help and focusing on others than on your self. but if the motivation for helping others is because you gain more money out of it. I don’t know if I agree anymore. Because than it means you are doing it because you make more out of it! I wish it was more focus on the joy of creating content on this platform than the Mooney we can make out of it! Don’t miss understand, a good business is a good think. But I felt the motivation in this edit is the money.. I wished it was something else that was the motivation for making good content☺️ Love the Scandinavian style clothes tho👏🏼👏🏼 Glad you share the style to the rest of the world👊🏻😉

Happy to see other professionals focusing on the important stuff. Lets all work together to make the world a better place!

A really interesting video Matti. As someone just starting out on KZfaq, who’s heard time and time again just make what you want, it’s interesting to hear a different perspective.

Thank you Matt for sharing what you learned from your experiences. The purpose of a commercial business is this: to solve a person or company's problem (and to receive compensation for solving the problem).

Always a good reminder!

Thank you so much for this lesson!

Always loving the content, so informative and now love it even more now seeing them 5ths in the background 😉

Nice. Good perspective! Thanks!

Thank you so much @Matti Haapoja! Love your honest content! It`s really inspiring to me! Btw: What product do you use for your hairstyle? :-D

Great vid Matti!

The best take i have heared on this issue: Don't "create for yourself" but rather "create videos you would like to watch or wish they would exist". So you create for yourself by providing the content you yourself want in the world. Its a nice compromise between creating for yourself and still providing value for other people.

You are a inspire! Everything true on what you said! Thank you so much! Keep going....😘

It helps us if you make creative things that are inspiring. IMO no need to serve us just serve yourself and we happilly enjoy watching it.

Great Matti, very honest of you. Thank you!

Embrace the mistakes! If you're not making them you're not growing 📈

The real fun in life is helping other people !!! what a powerful quote

Love the sound wuality in your video. Can you share what hardware and software setup do you use?

Totalmente de acuerdo contigo Matti, y la formula es sencilla, no tiene nada de nuevo, es y ha sido siempre de esta forma, y es increible que muchos y me incluyo, no prestemos atención a ese detalle. Trabajemos por lograr esa formula, y como dices hay que aprender, hacer y repetir y seguro tendremos éxito y la satisfacción de servir a los demás. Un gran abrazo a ti y tu familia. P.S.: esta vez comenté en español, para que practiques 😆👍🏼 You know i miss Teppo working with you !! 🙋🏻‍♂️ Have a great time man !

Great Video Matt

Totally agree! I want to add that there's a difference between creating for yourself and creating what you are passionate about. I believe that making videos about the things that matters to you will be of higher quality and help your motivation in the long run in stead of always trying to make what you think your audience wants to see. Thanks for another great video!

Love the vid and the ideas, thanks!!! :)

Good one! thanks for the advice!

Great message in your video. Btw, I got NMO gear last week. Thanks for the quick delivery. I haven't opened it yet, but I'm sure the quality is dope

That’s some advice I didn’t know I needed. Thank you 😊.

Excellent video, thanks!

This was excellent. I find that making for others is great but every now and then you need to to do something that you really enjoy also. The whole 80/20 rule helps. Recently I broke into several channels so that I could have a place for more family videos another for drones and another for the reptiles. It is very satisfying to work on different types of content and having different categories to grow in. Plus you get to meet totally different type of viewers. When I first cam across your channel years ago what turned me off was how good you were at everything just felt like you were at this unreachable level and there was a lot of beautiful videos but didn't learn much. One of my fav videos from you is that recent one showing how to shoot with window light. So simple but very useful. It allows us to connect better with you. The other stuff is nice but watching you drive your Tesla and one wheel for 20 mins kinda does the opposite.

I think there's definitely a balance that can be struck between the 2 if you're always creating for others then you may be always looking for outside recognition on everything that you do but if you create for others from a place of your own interests then there's something to be said there. for example if you're interested in drones and you find a problem that could help solve problem for others you create a video or product based on solving that problem you're not only creating from your own interests but you're helping people along the way. hope that makes sense. Also love the channel and I love the colors in this video can definitely see that teal and orange vibe throughout.

Great video, and a great reminder.

Love this video, totally agree !

Well said, Matti! Need more of the world thinking this way!

I think the deviation comes from the original, healthy goal of creating something that you would be passionate about or love consuming yourself. You should be proud of what you make and feel like your past self would have cherished this information or product. I’ve enjoyed following your journey Matti… keep it up.

And Matti is back! Just give that McKinnon guy a tap on the shoulder while you’re at it 🤣

Matti can you please make one video on your FCPX Export settings , i dont see a crop or black bars on your youtube videos , what settings in camera and please make a video on export settings plz

Matti I love you !!

The best "I mean very best story / ideology on KZfaq" I've seen so far! Thank you for this Matti!! < all the love!

Great tips!

That was a great reminder for my journey in the KZfaq space. And sparsely when I`m a father and way I`m make videos :) So thank you

Damn! This definitely changes my point of view in a big way.. Thanks for the advice, and as usual, great video!

I actually find your videos of just enjoying life as much more entertaining and valuable. Of course your educational content is great too, but you have an interesting life and lifestyle.

I would love to hear some more book reccomendations from you, especially since you said in a recent video, that you plan on reading a lot this year.

Glad you got it!!

I started following you 2 yrs ago when I started learning film-making. Your videos always gave insights and taught us valuable lessons. Recently, I’ve been seeing your videos getting more about you and a lot of b-roll before getting into the meat of the video. Honestly it made me not get super excited about your videos anymore. But thanks for realizing that your business is all about teaching people and inspiring people. Your film-making skills is 🔥🔥🔥 don’t get me wrong. This video you just uploaded made me excited again about the future valuable content you will be creating for all of us viewers. Thank you. 😊 also, maybe create another channel for your personal vlogs instead?

I love your channel my dear Travel Feels ;) Bit for the very first time I cannot agree with you. There are million and one reasons why people create. Some selfish, some not. Who are we to judge. Sure, of you want a business then you need to create for others. But there is so much more to creating videos than business. I like doing it and it gives me joy seeing myself from the past. Imagine how cool it will be for our kids. By all means I love the community and replying to the one comment per video that I get, but I would still create if I had no views and comments.

Great points!

Great video that was what I needed

Am doing what you said now I create for myself and like you said said I don’t feel good because am putting so much effort , time and money on the equipment’s etc.. but still it didn’t feel right because am burning money, time and skills! after watching this video I know I have to work smart and follow my passion with some exposure and not only to myself, thanks a lot bro this was some motivation and an eye opener for small creators like me 👍🤘🔥

idk seems like creating for yourself is a completely reasonable outlet for any creative energy you might have. Creating for others is also a possibility but to say that you should't create for yourself because your business will suffer seems like a good argument for pandering which although profitable is also a bit disingenuous. And surely creating for yourself can still be good entertainment for others but perhaps not as many or not the same people who enjoy content targeted specifically at them.

Interesting topic ! loved it 😄

super insightful as always

This is a group session helping you to feel better! :) haha Great video as always you are an inspiration to me Matti!

Nice video, I agree that value proposition is important. I do at least think of the value and problem solving aspect, though probably not as much as I really need to.

You have described the difference between an Artist (someone who creates primarily for themselves or their own artistic needs) and a Creator (someone who generally creates for others) 😁🙌🏻

Like anything in life there is a balance. I started watching Matti when it was maybe 'more' about teaching but honestly I loved when you done daily vlogs, looked forward to them every day. Also having that structure is key, for me anyway and my personality, a good example is peter's channel. when 2 min Tuesday was on I knew I was down to learn but maybe on a Friday night I was watching a video named, 'dope squad wave mobbing' I knew what I was getting and was absolute fine with the nonsense I was about to see! Maybe some form of loose schedule between, teaching, vlogging and reviewing is the way ........

haha love it, i wish we had as much snow as in your city! :) regards Luc

Awesome!

I personally agree with this to an extent. That being said you need a balance. Make content that will hopefully benefit others but ensure it’s content you want to make because if your heart isn’t in it you won’t be able to effect the people you are making content for.

I hope to see video about Sony slog2/cine4/HLG when to use it and how colorgrade a little (delog). Your could also marketing LUTs => win - win

Strong wise words! but really... i never felt like you were only creating for yourself during the years i've been watching you consistently. we just love you the way your are!

it's great you have realised it early , and it makes me happy you have found out , more tutorials for us now

THANKS....this will definitely create an impact ✌

Dang that’s straight 🔥🔥🔥

Matti, as I started to watch this video, I thought it sounded a lot like MJ DeMarco. I just finished The Millionaire Fastlane in the fall. He's a beast with solid advice! Congratulations on the clothing line launch!

I'm chasing the happy medium. I want to create what makes me happy AND has value for others. You're right. I don't create to let it create dust on my computer

That’s what I call “sick video” well said man!