Q&A: The Future of this Channel (à-bas-le-ciel)

I just got a question from a guy named
Niven Reeves on livestream and he asked where do you see your channel and the influence you have on YouTube in the next several years even have even more positively and broadly what kind of impact you like to make I'm going to give kind of a minimum answer a medium answer and a maximum answer you know the minimum answer the minimum is to get me the minimum standards the minimum expectations are important to keep in mind here I was saying to my girlfriend the other day while walking down the street I said to her you know one of the differences between myself and a lot of other vegans on YouTube is that what I'm doing on YouTube right now is sustainable it really is sustainable I can keep doing this I keep tell you about vegan politics I can keep doing book reviews if you've talked about whatever books afternoon reading keep talking about the languages I'm studying in my life what's going on University and my career aspirations and the stuff I can keep this going for five years you know at this pace and with this level of audience direction this is sustainable for me so if you don't like what I'm doing it's fine but this is sustainable and this relates to the questions about you know not having the comment section open on YouTube it would not be sustainable for me I can't take the time to go through answer do you know what kind of constant QA in the youtube comment section there are a lot of other things that youtubers do to get attention that I can't do and you know there are other channels I see you know actually flying to conferences going to attend events in person you know I respect that or doing Street interviews with strangers face to face conversations well I see they're doing a lot of things that for me would not be sustainable I could not take the time to do that I couldn't if I were if I were doing them in a channel for one month then my channel would be blank for six months United may there be nothing new uploaded so one of the one of the basic parts the answer is I can keep doing the same thing I can keep saying that playing the same role within veganism and in terms of sharing my own life and I do see that as tremendously positive I mean you guys know when this channel started I was single now I have a girlfriend and the girlfriend comes on my channel chest me just got a request here on the live stream to make videos about a Song of Ice and Fire some of those fires of book series and there's a TV series called Game of Thrones that's adapted from it I can keep doing that so I can keep sharing my life but personal impolitic go on YouTube in this way and you know the quote Joseph Stalin a quantitative build-up leads to qualitative change you know I can keep doing that with the low level of support I've got on patreon and it works now when you ask what's possible you know what in the next five years are possible things would be different if I were if I were simply getting more financial support through patreon if I were getting $1,000 a month instead of $200 a month yeah there would be the possibility for me actually attend events in person then the boss will eventually do things and create things and you know even do fundraisers or what have you you know I got an invitation from another youtuber just to go to her house and do a video with her yes maybe not the most productive use of time and money but whether it's going to do that or going to actually visit some of the more successful vegan institutions there's one basement Ireland they started off as a an animal sanctuary and then did the fundraising for an ad campaign the ad campaign is known as go vegan world I'd love to interview some of those people I'd love to go and you know visit their offices and see what they're up to and I have actually downloaded and looked at their financial reports the extent I was able to say I think I'm miss remember there I went through the charity listings I was trying to research and get more information on them part of what we need to do as vegans has learned from successful examples of institutional organization both vegan and non vegan you know learn from what's been successful within our movement as well as of course learning from the examination of failures so it kind of so said the kind of minimum standard medium standard maximum standard if I had either more time or more money I would like to play more of a role that way terms of active research I do think about branching out the channel to do more contemporary politics there used to be a channel that still exists as a channel the Young Turks TYT and they just do commentary on politics the qualitative channel now is garbage it's complete rights now a laughingstock rail in YouTube but the success that Channel had you know is it is an indicative example and I had seen some short-lived successes like it within Canada where the poor Canadian political discussion channels came and went so you know in terms onion killed the medium level may not be sustainable for me I could put way more time into YouTube and really start discussing current and ongoing politics not really the veganism to me oh my girlfriend has conversations me about the current civil war in Syria and she says that they understandably look you know this conversation we just had could be on YouTube you could make a video about this side of the other thing we've just been talking about casually and that is quite true whether it's politics of East Asia like China Japan Cambodia Laos Thailand politics of the Middle East West Asia Iran Iraq etc etc or politics United States and States foreign policy politics within Canada Canadian impersonations there's definitely a medium level option where I could do more in bringing political content to YouTube and you know talk to talk about the stuff in the way that I think would be positive productive for my channel in all elements including bringing in new people who might be interested to see the material on veganism Sarah mentioned that's the way to go I mean in terms of the the maximum you know looking looking to work the future and what's positive I don't know man you know I'm an ambitious person but most of my ambitions right now are going into university education and some kind of conventional career path even if I don't know what that is so you know if I were to start spending my time much more of the arts if I was to buckle down and work on painting as a painter you know creative finance you know actually painting canvases then I could imagine where YouTube filming what's going on in my studio and what I'm working on and even ultimately selling an auction in my art that could interact in a really positive way but in the other hand if I'm going to go back to school and get a masters degree something really boring with masters of Public Administration master of political science it's hard to see a really positive interaction between what I'm doing on YouTube and what I'm doing in terms of research or nine-to-five job I'd also say I mean you know it is possible I don't know my own financial situation it is possible I'll get a straight-up Jo job you know working behind the counter at Starbucks or what-have-you and I don't know probably if I'm in that situation probably kind of boring you know desk job or you know grocery store job bagging up groceries or something probably that would lead me to spend more time and more energy on on YouTube um coming back to the phrasing of the question though part of the question definitely was of how long how I see my own role within the YouTube vegan demi-monde changing the next five years um part of the changes just cuz the passage of time I mean it's already a situation where I'm somebody who has memories of what was going on on YouTube three years ago and most the new broadcasters don't but you know I've said this before at some way you know leading by example is not leading at all a lot of people have misconceptions that I don't see myself as being in a leadership role on YouTube I don't see what I what I'm doing as as providing leadership and I mean I guess the one thing that real like to see change is you know when I put up a VOC review why can't there be two or three other channels reading the same book and then giving their own views on that book we're talking about like books about politics of veganism and this kind of stuff why can't we have a bit more of a snowball effect with a few other channels that take himself seriously in terms of talking about politics in the future of the movement that would be really great to see but you know I've always said this about this channel talking me on this channel telling me right now in this livestream going to get back to this you know [Music] fundamentally if the same is meeting me in a coffee shop and talking to me not I mean so if someone asked you what do you think is the maximum positive outcome of having a bunch of conversations about politics in a coffee shop you know really the maximum positive outcome is that you have a bunch of colleagues whom you respect and who respect you and you form the basis to organize real foundations real political institutions for veganism whether that's you know a humble group of maybe five vegans who do the paperwork and put some money in a hat and start lobbying you know the Board of Education to try to get the egg and dairy messages out of our schools so we stopped teaching children that eggs are healthy and milk is helping you know putting together that that could be five people who form a tiny nonprofit in Canada a tiny foundation or maybe something more grandiose or something linked to it was something more broadly participatory maybe not grandiose but you know I'm trying to publish this children's storybook so that's going to be an illustrated storybook for children that delivers the message of veganism in a kind of sentimental and interesting way that's something where YouTube and a larger audience they could donate to that they could support that they could be a part of that project in a sense you know sends very different from the kind of focused closed-door you know desk and office work of a lot of forms of lobbying and political activism so yeah that's my answer great question and I hope you still with me I mean all you people I hope you still know me five years from now and I hope I know you five years again because that is really the strength of social media is that you build up a sense of rapport and Trust even if it's just a few hundred people people who want to see you succeed personally and politically and you know feeling's mutual for the future of the vegan movement I really do come out you try to cooperate with people whom sometimes I have very little come and I hope there are more more people on the other side who are willing to cooperate with me maybe even though they feel they have very little in common