It’s been a long time since I posted on this blog and who knows if this will be the last.

That doesn’t sound very reassuring does it?

It’s hard to know where to prioritize your time. I think about this often.

Do my daily activities lead to beneficial results? Or am I merely going through the same patterns without much to show for it. A blog, for example, is great for getting our thoughts down on ‘paper’ and has lasting effects, but the benefits are not immediate. So is it really worth the time I put into it?

Should I write this blog post? Or is there something else I should be doing with my time today? 

How do you evaluate your daily decisions?

I heard a story once that I believe was tied to the life of Sir Richard Branson. Summed up it goes like this: 

Branson was asked to speak at an event. The offer was declined no matter how much the event organizer increased the cash incentive or reduced the time expectation for his participation. When it reached some absurd amount (We’re talking being paid in the 7 digits for 1 hour of his time) the offer was still declined.

I think most of us would have taken that deal in a heartbeat. 1 million dollars for an hour’s worth of energy. I mean come on! Who makes that kind of decision?

Beyond that point, the decision to decline the offer was made by his assistance without ever consulting with Branson himself. I know if I was offering someone 1 million dollars in exchange for 1 hour of their time, I’d at least hope that they’d make that decision for themselves. 

A different perspective

What comes off as bewildering to perhaps you and me, begins to make a lot of sense when you understand the reason for the assistant’s decision. 

The assistant explained, “If it doesn’t fit within 1 of 3 categories stipulated, the answer is simply, No. No matter how much money is being offered. Why? It takes time away from what is known to be worth his time.” (Quote Paraphrased) 

After hearing that story, what does that make you think about your daily routine? I know I for one struggle to maintain a ‘routine’ at all. Even if the story I shared wasn’t 100% accurate, it still makes for an eye-opening/ life-changing dialogue.

Stories such as these, cause me to reflect on the best ways to save time to prioritize what matters most. Which to me, like many, has family at its center. How can I be with family while being a provider? How can I be present to teach my kids the skills that they need that can only come from home?

I’m still struggling to find the perfect answer, but over the last few years have made choices regarding my ‘day job’ that I felt would allow me the time and resources needed. 

Today, I’d like to share the result of those decisions and together we’ll evaluate if my decisions going forward should be corrected. 

Backstory

Moving to Italy in 2013 had a negative impact on my career. I thought my career plan would transition easily whereas I intended to continue in the online bookkeeping startup that I had launched with two other partners working remotely. That plan was short-lived as I was replaced shortly after I left the US. I guess my partners didn’t like the 8 hour time difference. 

I most likely could have picked up a job in Milan at any moment, but I knew that would lead to a lifestyle that would take me away from my “family” focus as opposed to towards it. 

Decisions for the future

After passing through various private ventures life stabilized when I began teaching English online. The pay wasn’t 100% consistent and it was completely outside my realm of interest and education. But it paid the bills while allowing me to work from home. And that’s how the next few years went. 

Have you ever reached that moment in life where you just said ENOUGH! 

One day I realized I just wasn’t happy!

Why wasn’t I happy? 

In contrast with other jobs available to me, the pay was ok, but there was no room for growth. I taught between 10 and 15 kids per day with a maximum 5 minute break between each in order to reach mediocre pay. I was exhausted with little to show for it. At my max potential and there was no end in sight. 

I recognized that somehow I found myself with a JOB (Just over Broke) with no career path in sight. At the same time, I taunted myself by reading blogs about the FIRE movement and stories of real estate professionals. There was a better way, I knew it, and it screamed for me to take action!

And so, enough was enough. I decided it was time to get back in the real estate game.

Would real estate be right for me? We had been investing on our own, but should I become a real estate professional? 

Back to the first point of this post:

So is it really worth the time I put into it?

DauvO

The path taken

Where did this newly rekindled vigor take me? I decided immediately that my focus should be in the category of real estate I had the most experience in. Which was ‘Italian real estate auctions.’ There were a ton of professionals in the sector working towards Italian residents, and I preferred to work in my native language. I would help those who frequently visited Italy to find a home away from home on the auction. But how was I going to communicate with my target client? Considering the venues, YouTube stood out as the best way to communicate by experience. I had experienced a major learning curve since I’d never done anything remotely related to creating content at that level. I’m the one that usually avoids photos altogether. Broadcasting my life to the public was extremely out of MY “ordinary.”  

I began by creating a video about any subject that came to mind. I even did a 30 day challenge where I’d post 1 video per day. With fairly little results. But I did learn a lot about YouTube in a short amount of time. My first videos were AWFUL! I even delisted them since to me they were and still are the definition of “cringe worthy.” 

Post 30-day challenge

I decided to seek expert advice where I learned to make videos based on google search trends. Which is how I ended up on the subject of “1 euro homes.” It was almost an overnight success as I posted the results of my first trip to Sicily in real time. I watched as my subscribers went from 25 close friends to 250 “sconosciuti” in the matter of a few hours. And so began my more adventurous genre of videos.

It started out bumpy, and I mean literally. I used my phone to record video and it offered no stabilization. Who knew about stabilization? When a friend of mine mentioned the shakiness of the video, I rationalized it by comparing my videos to ‘The Blair Witch Project’. I guess I assumed people would watch no matter how much of a headache it caused. 

Now passing the 3rd anniversary of my channel’s creation we are about to cross the 22k threshold. I’m pretty proud of that, but the most important thing to me is that I’ve been able to meet some amazing people and see many interesting places because of the channel. 

But, is it worth it? … 

We’ll get to that!

Though Youtube was intended to be the portal that would help me reach potential clients, and overall meet like-minded people, upon becoming a Youtuber and seeing other successful Youtubers, I made a conscious decision that I preferred to be a Youtuber. 

I enjoyed it! It was a great way to make new friends! And so I pushed my real estate business to the side and focused on content. There was a problem however. I continually marketed myself as a real estate professional without so much as an offer to stand behind. Nothing I was happy about anyway. Video chats lined up one after the other. I spoke to 100’s of people looking for Italian real estate solutions and was on the fence about where to focus my energy. If I helped them, I’d have less time to make content. And content was the source in which they originated from. Almost like a chicken before the egg sceneario.

My Decision

So whether fortunate or not, I left many clients on the “potential client” list and focused on content creation instead. I had it in my mind that dedicating time to Youtube was more valuable in regards to my time and obviously future earnings and at the same time, life felt adventurous and I was offering people a useful service. I lived and still live by the principle, sacrifice a little now to have a lot later.

Would that be a formula for success?

Let’s look at the results

Let Me start by saying, I’m sharing this because I’ve always been inspired by others who have been transparent in their results. I’d like to follow in their footsteps and be forthright with anyone that reads this post in the future. That said, I feel hesitation in posting this data because I expect there may be some that assume more or perhaps less than what is the reality. Hopefully if you fit that description, you can learn from my experience in some way and improve your own life. 

Youtube Earnings?

I’ve never shared this before, so you’ll be the first to see it. 

Even though I felt like I had a successful start on Youtube, I didn’t actually make it over the 1000 subscriber limit to be eligible for ad revenue sharing until 8 months later. So we’ll start the analysis in May 2020.

You remember what else happened in 2020? Yep, Covid! I also lost my job teaching English right about the same time that I began to be eligible for Youtube earnings. So you could say I was happy to finally reach that point. At the precipice of searching for a new job, the channel proved it could earn 65 dollars per day. So, I decided to focus my energy on what I  felt would be a growing enterprise.

The Reality

As you might be aware, Covid had a lot of people dreaming of a better life. Italian real estate was a hot topic.

It was a challenge to make video during lockdowns and road blockades, but I expected that interest would grow as I made improvements to video quality and focused on good content.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t completely the case. I ended up finishing the year earning just over $3,600. (Which I guarantee was spent on travel, lodging, and equipment.)

I’d consider 2020 to be a success, but I knew we could do better. It doesn’t bother me to say I was investing in the channel’s growth, but my family also needed to eat.

So do you think it was worth my time? 

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Something unexpected

In September of 2020, an active follower of my channel made the suggestion that I start a Patreon community in order to help with travel costs. There were a number of positive reactions to that idea, so I spent a day creating a Patreon community. To me it was the perfect platform to teach more about Italian Real Estate.

It started off well with 27 active Patreon members in just 2 months earning 560 per month

Adding $2,228 to 2020’s total revenue.

So be honest with yourself. If you earned $5,877 in your first year of youtube, would you keep going?

Would it be worth it?

2021

They say success is found with consistency. By this point, I felt like I had a handle on how Youtube worked and could really focus on content. I also decided at the end of 2020, that I would create a product of my own.

An online course.

It would be tied into the Patreon community initially and released upon completion to the public. Since it was difficult to travel due to lockdowns anyway, I decided to stop posting on Youtube from December to January in order to complete the course video content. To this day, I believe that was a mistake.

Explosive Growth

While I was focused on finally having my own product, Youtube had discovered and caught hold of another Italian Youtube channel. Nicki Positano’s subscriber count exploded from 20,000 to 120,000 in one month. She definitely deserved it since she had been sharing her life in Italy for years. Fortunately, my channel grew as well. Even if just as a side result to her popularity, I was grateful for it.

Perhaps if I had been posting actively at that moment, it would have grown even more, but 210 new subscribers per day in the first weeks of the year felt like a good omen. 

In the end, I wasn’t really proud of my online course and it never saw the light of day, but seeing the channel reach 94 dollars per day boosted my courage, too bad it only lasted for a fleeting moment. Still, if it could happen once, It could happen again, right! 

The Reality

Well, it didn’t! The entire year seemed to flatline. There were high expectations for foreigners to visit Italy, but we were still living with a certain level of uncertainty and it seemed to translate to a loss of interest in watching videos on the subject. People were almost depressed watching videos about a topic that they couldn’t act on.

Still, in that year, the channel had experienced close to 1 Million Views, grown nearly 9,000 subscribers, and earned approximately $5,500 in ad revenue. 

Outside the 1 euro home topic, we posted videos in The Dolomites, Puglia, Sicily, and Calabria and again spent every dollar or more on the production/travel/ and equipment necessary. 

Patreon Revenue 2021

Throwing Patreon into the mix, 2021 resulted in 6,554.11 + 5,481.53 = $12,035.64 in revenue from the two sources. Now, let me ask you again. 

Was it worth it?

Would you continue in 2022?

I’m going to cut the post off here before we dive into 2022. 

We’ve seen so many success stories on Youtube, I wanted to give you another perspective. I’m not inferring that this is the end of DauvO, or that I consider myself a failure, as far as YouTube is concerned.

I just want you to take a look inside yourself to ask, would you continue considering the results? 

Do you think those are the only results that matter?