I just woke up, it’s 9 AM. Despite the busy schedule of the previous day I actually got a great nights sleep (although staying up too late is definitely an issue I face). For a moment I remember back to the days when I was working a full time traditional 9-6 role. Awake at 7:30, out the door by 8:15 for a 40 minute commute to the office. I don’t really miss waking up early, but the hustle and bustle of a morning commute and all the frenetic energy that goes with it is something I do miss these days. Since December 2019, I traded in the full time grind for a completely different life. The life of a content creator.

My typically breakfast, surrounded by cameras, phones and Animal Crossing on my Switch Lite!

It’s 10 AM now, and after washing my face I make my breakast, which typically consists of a bowl of cereal (grape nuts today!) and a capsule of my favorite Nespresso. Unlike the old days, breakfast is a very relaxed and drawn out experience. No rushing to grab a bun or eating on the go or at my work desk. And yet I remember back to those moments and one thing I never experienced before that I always do now: silence. I’m typically alone at this moment, and through most periods of the day. Gone are the small talk and little interactions that one relishes in an office setting, and even for those who work from home I’m sure there is still a sense of teamwork and interaction that happens online. But as a content creator in the first few years you are typically a team of one. This is probably the reason why so many content creators can be found swiping through Twitter a lot of the day. This is the content creator’s equivalent to an office: a place where like minded individuals can share their similar stories and experiences, their joys and their sorrows, all for the sake of interaction. Content creation can definitely be a lonely experience.

Some of the typical banter that you see on tech Twitter.

By 11 PM I start getting what I call “the itch”, the feeling that it is time to begin my creative process for the day: filming. In some cases, the path to filming is easy. A new device was just shipped to me that will be making it’s global debut the next week. So today my plan is to begin seriously testing it, taking photos and producing some initial video that will work into my review. This type of work flow comes naturally to me, as this is the closest thing to your typical work “deadlines“ and schedule that must be followed to completion. But in many cases the act of creating content comes out of a place of creativity and the need to satisfy “the itch” that I face. It’s in these moments of pressure and anxiety that some of my best ideas come to me: a new approach to reviewing a device, a comparison of products that I hadn’t thought of, a new shot that would make a great intro to the video. In the end all of what you do as a content creator needs to manifest itself on to the screen. No matter what ideas you have and how you execute them, after completing the filming process you are left with bits and pieces of “footage”, the ingredients required to “bake the cake” and deliver the finished product. It’s time to start baking.

Final Cut Pro, the place where I spend most of my days!

From around 12 to 4 PM (or longer depending on the video) I am doing something that I’m sure many content creators will agree they spend most of their time doing: editing. I think of all the aspects of content creator life, the one that most outside observers get wrong is how long it takes to successfully edit a video. Sure there are cases where I may do a quick take where the editing is merely a matter of minutes. But in the case of my most elaborate videos editing can last 6-8 hours or even longer (I’ve heard some content creators have spent multiple days just putting together the pieces!). Luckily for me editing is one of those activites that I enjoy, and even find cathartic. That’s not to say editing can’t be absolutely draining, and mistakes or setbacks can even make it an arduous experience, but watching all the ingredients come together into a coherent and entertaining piece of content is extremely gratifying. Completing an export on a video is the equivalent of taking the cake out of the oven. Now it’s time to let it cool before serving, or in the case of a video, uploading, preparing the thumbnail (cover art for the video) and getting ready to publish.

One of the most beautiful screens for a content creator: the YouTube upload video page!

By 5 PM my editing work is done, and yet the work day of a content creator never truly ends. Once I publish I begin the next part of the process, which is engaging with all of my viewers, their questions and comments on this new video, or any other video I have produced. In addition to this I’m also responding to emails from new brands who want to send over products for review, new sponsors who want to promote their businesses on the channel, or from the occasional viewer who sends me an email with more in-depth questions about a product. With an audience of my size this type of follow up could easily be an entirely separate full-time job on it’s own, but as a creator it’s these interactions that I value the most. While it’s gotten harder over the years to try and respond to every comment, I do my best to provide meaningful value to my 175,000 subscribers and their questions. This passion for tech that I see in them is what has helped me to keep pushing, allowing me to deliver 850 videos or roughly one video daily for nearly the past 3 years.

I get at least a few hundred comments daily on YouTube and other social media channels. It’s tough trying to respond to all of them!

It’s 8 PM and my day has come to an end. It’s at this time that I can lean back, relax and enjoy the evening. I have to thank my wife and daughter who probably suffer the most from this type of schedule and sometimes all consuming grind. Frankie Tech would be nothing without their support and understanding. Yet my push to build this small tech channel into one of the largest and most reliable sources for tech news and product reviews in Asia will continue. Despite the setbacks and challenges of life as a content creator, being able to follow my passions and deliver content of value to my audience is a position I am truly humbled and grateful for.

Behind the scenes of the typical analytics that you get after a day of posting a video.

It’s time for bed, to start the entire creative process tomorrow all over again. Today’s video may do well, and it may also not. But regardless of the result, “the itch” will still be there and I’ll be at it again, living another day in the life of a content creator.