We were fiiiiinally done filming for my YouTube channel at 11pm at night and I could be found on the couch, scarfing down some cold pizza and pumping to relieve some of the pressure in my chesticle region.
Yes, I said chesticle region.
When we started our YouTube Channel back in April of 2019, I was 3 months postpartum and my husband John was about to quit his day job and had JUST picked up a camera and started learning how to film and edit video.
We filmed at night.
We didn’t have any help with Myles during the day and because John was still phasing out of his day job, the only time left for filming was after Myles went down for his first 1-2 hour shift of sleep at night.
If you’re unfamiliar with the newborn sleep schedule, it’s basically 1-2 hour shifts (if you’re lucky) of sleep throughout the day and night.
John would set up the film equipment while I nursed Myles to sleep. I’d zhuzh up my hair quickly and come downstairs with the baby monitor and hop on screen to film!
It was CHAOS.
We’d need to pack in at least one whole tutorial in that 1-2 hour shift and cross all our fingers and toes hoping he wouldn’t wake up before then.
Why I Started My YouTube Channel
So, with allllll that backstory you might be asking…”Why did you start your youtube channel?”
Well, this season of our lives taught us so much and still continues to do so!
While navigating through learning about this space called YouTube, being a parent for the first time and running on little sleep, we were able to build a channel from 0 subscribers to over 250K subscribers in four years!!
John’s a full blown videographer now and is so talented at getting the shots, finding and placing in music at the right times and making sure everything is uploading on time, writing titles, descriptions for each video and more.
My role is to teach.
Teaching is something I’ve known I’m good at for a very long time and thankfully, per John’s encouragement, our YouTube Channel was born and has exploded our business.
We now have a studio to film in (check out a tour of the studio here!) while Myles is at school and figuring out how to light the space isn’t as laborious as it was in the past.
Is working with your husband tricky at times? Sure. But we have a pretty great situation and keep our roles very separate and dialed.
If you want to see some of John on the YouTube Channel, check him out here!
Because we’re always posting new videos each week on our YouTube, I need your help…what do YOU want to learn from me??
Drop your tips and requests for our YouTube Channel in the comments below!
Jenna, I appreciate your time and effort and John’s too. I would like to take my art beyond a single flower or tree and actually paint a lovely scene of flowers in a yard or in a pasture or landscape. I love loose styles of painting, “you can paint this sunset”, 3 yrs ago. I also really appreciate the “discovering the importance of every brush stroke”
Thank you for sharing other you tube watercolor artist.
Joanne
❤️❤️ You’re very welcome!
Jenna,
Thank you so much for sharing your process. I’ve been learning watercolor for the past 4 months and I’m so cruel to myself because I wanna paint beautiful landscapes. And you can’t imagine how much your, videos, vlog, books and newsletters have helped me. Because I do get stuck, but overall I absolutely love watercolor, I’ve spent over 5 hours a day just painting whatever comes to mind.
Once again, thank you! And I’ve subscribed to your Patreon and also super hiper mega LOVE IT