So, we are getting close to hitting 8,000 subscribers. In the grand scheme of YouTube, we are still a very tiny channel. We’ve been making these travel videos for five years now, and honestly, sometimes it feels like I’m just uploading videos into the void.
Well, that changed this week.
We were vacationing in Cancun shooting our next series, just killing time because we had a long 45-minute wait before we could board the next Ultramar Ferry. We weren’t filming, just minding our own business, ready to get out of there. Suddenly, this guy next to us looks at me and asks, “Are you a YouTuber?”
I was kind of taken aback. I’m like, “Yeah, actually.”
He turns to Michelle, who I assume is his wife, and says, “I knew it! The mustache looks a little longer, but I told her if he smiles and I see his teeth, I would know.”
Apparently my teeth, beard and bald head are my trademark. Who knew?
His name was Joe, and he was staying at the Riu Palace Peninsula.
The Irony Here is the crazy part. Five years ago, almost to the day, Brandy and I recorded our very first vacation series at that exact resort. Those are some of our oldest videos. They definitely aren’t our greatest work because I’ve learned a lot about editing and making videos since then, but Joe had seen them! It was a major “full circle” moment to be standing there five years later, talking to someone who watched the videos that started it all.
I have to admit, standing there talking to Joe and Michelle, I had a realization. For the longest time looking at our subscriber count, it’s easy to think it’s just a number on a screen. Or maybe 8,000 internet bots. And if they are real people, what would they look like? They gotta be weird right? But meeting Joe made me realize something. Oh, these are actual people. And they aren’t weird at all. You guys watching are real. It was a really cool reality check to see an actual human being who knows who we are.
Now, because I’m me, I made it awkward. I always told Brandy, “The first time I meet a viewer, I’m getting a picture.” So I asked them for a photo.
We took the pic, and I immediately got nervous. I’m an editor. I live behind the camera for a reason. I can edit out my awkward pauses in a video, but I can’t edit real life.
But then Joe surprised me. He asked if he could get a picture with us on his phone so he had his own copy.
To Joe, it was probably just a random funny moment spotting a guy he watched on YouTube. To me? It was five years of work finally feeling real. It’s easy to get lost in the editing timeline, but meeting a human being that we didn’t personally know, who actually watched our videos, was pretty cool. Even if I was sweating bullets the whole time.
So if we ever meet in person and I seem a little off, just know that I am probably way more nervous than you are.
FamAbLE 