Having completed my first VLog about a week ago, I feel like a man whose gained a new understanding of himself and I’m finally ready to write about it. In the process I’ve discovered that VLogging is a lot harder than it looks, so to properly convey the experience of learning these things, here’s a list of reasons why that is:

1. I am nowhere near as articulate as I thought I was.

Often I would find myself stuttering and muttering through recordings of the VLog, tripping over words I assumed I’d get down with no issues and having to reset countless times. Then I would get mad at myself about screwing up so frequently and failing at the one thing I prided myself on being able to do without fail: Continually speaking without interruption on matters of importance to me to the detriment of those around me. I’m sure a lot of people I know personally would be glad if I stopped and evaluated the things I was saying between breaths, so why should the rest of the world get that luxury?

2. Continuity matters.

I tend to get restless and start moving myself around a lot, and unfortunately that habit extends to what I do with the things around me. I was constantly moving my laptop around, shifting its position and flipping it between takes. I was told this was a source of frustration by someone that watched it, so I’ll be fixing it in the future. Honestly though, I think I may have been moving it around a lot out of some subconscious desire to have the camera capture all of my angles (to the benefit of the audience of course). Call it accidental altruism.

3. I don’t sound as cool as I think I do.

I remember imagining my voice as having a suave and gentle tone that would melt ears (and hearts) like butter, a cross between James Bond and a famous Jazz singer. Instead, I sound closer to what I imagine awkward 20-somethings with way too much free time on their hands would sound like, and that really conflicts with my perception that my voice was velvety smooth and baritone. What I thought was a barrage of warmth and raw sex appeal was actually a wave of nervousness that drew to mind that nerd from the Krusty Burger drive-thru .

4. I’m not the bastion of charisma I thought I was.

I came in thinking that VLogging would be easy for me because my performance (because that’s what all VLogging is in the end) would be able to instantly draw people in. Apparently, that was a grave miscalculation on my part, and I paid for it when I realized that I was just as lame as the uncomfortable looking chumps I made fun of on Youtube. I’d like to say this humbled me, but I’m deeply committed to deluding myself into having a highly inflated sense of accomplishment.

5. You have to write down the things you say before saying them.

Obvious I know, but when I started VLogging, I didn’t think it’d be like public speaking was in elementary school, but it turns out that’s exactly what it is like. Putting yourself out there and speaking is only half of it, the other half is preparation that includes actually writing the stuff you wanna convey to your audience. I had to contextualize these thoughts I was having first because all four of the issues above are made a hundred times worse when you’re just planning to ramble (as I am prone to do). To channel my public speaking elementary school self, I’ll leave by saying:

In conclusion, VLogging is a lot harder than I thought it would be, and I look forward to honing my skills in it and maybe improving my articulation ability in the process. I will definitely be doing more of it soon.