Yesterday, I watched my brother and his girlfriend run the London marathon.

And here's what it taught me about selling on YouTube a cute pic of me and my nephew.

Now I love any excuse for a reflection moment, especially a "this time last year" entry in my journal.

And watching them run the marathon naturally took me back to when I ran it last year.

And how hard I found April 2025...

It was the most overwhelmed I've felt in a long time.

The pressure of my first marathon and fundraising for it was real.

But the biggest mental weight for me was that I'd overcooked it in my business.

More specifically, I'd overcooked myself.

I'd taken on too much. I had too many calls, not enough time to think, not enough time to work, and I could feel myself burning out.

Ironically, it was also one of the biggest months for sales in the business. But the money didn't fix anything.

I'd quit my job to build a business I loved, but the desire to build something big quickly backfired on me.

This was my calendar in April last year. The orange blocks are calls.

It's not the most calls anyone has ever had. I had more in my consulting job.

But feeling burned out, always on calls and working late because I didn't have time to actually work in the day wasn't why I quit my job.

But here's the thing, I am so glad I went through that period.

So so glad.

I condensed a huge amount of learnings and progress into a short period.

And now I know a little bit more about:

• where my limits are
• what life I actually want to build
• and what actions/decisions take me towards a business I hate

Don't get me wrong, I'll almost certainly overcook myself many more times in the future.

But each time I'll learn more about how to avoid it and the things that really drain me.

Almost every YouTuber or entrepreneur I know has had a period where they overcooked it.

Most of the time, it's nearer the start of the journey.

You have a big vision which distorts your estimation of how much work it'll involve.

So you dive in head first, launch something exciting and shock horror after 2-3 months you're thinking "holy crap this is a lot of work".

Which brings me to...

This pattern repeats itself again and again with clients I work with.

They go through this period of serious intensity where they're adjusting to the physical and emotional demands of a new approach to their YouTube business.

But after 6+ months of hard work they are so glad to be in the position they're in.

While in the midst of my own crisis last year in April, I knew that I just had to keep going.

Sometimes I felt so stuck that I couldn't see how things would change. And I questioned whether the reward was worth it.

But today, I can confidently say it is.

I'm still figuring things out in my business. And starting it certainly was stressful. But each day, week and year that goes by the work that gets done slowly piles up.

And the business gets easier and easier to run, and the systems that get built mean I can do more and more work.

Safe to say April this year has been a lot nicer. Not least because I wasn't running the marathon.

Tintin 🫡

P.s.

If you're serious about building a multi 6-figure business from your channel, you might be interested in The $100k YouTuber.

Every single day I work closely with YouTubers in the programme to help them grow. It's the only thing I do.

You can learn more, see results and apply on this page here.

The $100k YouTuber Roadmap: read here​

My YouTube Channel: watch here​

Podcasts I've Done: watch here​