Tori Kelly "Paper Hearts" *cover
Guitarist: Roark Bailey
Engineer & Videographer: Joules
In one day we got a little over 4,000 views :) Pretty amazing if you ask me.
It's amazing to me because after 6 years, I still have the privilege of being heard.
Time is precious, but people out there take the time to support what I do or at least give me a chance. I am blessed with musicians who offer up their talents to be a part of something I want to perform or create.
Being "in the game" of YouTube for a while I've definitely had my ups and downs.
I remember the moment when I got my first 300 subscribers and being astounded.
I remember when my "No One" cover got over a million views, and back then that was viral.
I remember when people started randomly recognizing me from videos and I started getting booked for shows.
Those were definitely some of the ups.
But I also remember when people I met only really cared about wanting to "jam" with me without really getting to know me. I questioned peoples intentions & hardly was able to trust.
I remember when people started comparing me with other YouTubers and I let that get to me.
I remember when I began getting fixated by numbers and the worth of my content was determined by that.
I remember how it all started feeling more like work to keep up with rather than a passion I had fun with.
I remember pretty much throwing in the towel and taking a long hiatus from posting at all.
Those were some of my low points.
I took the time to come back to the heart of the matter.
Back then I averaged 10,000 views a day and if it didn't hit at least 10,000 views, then it was a failure - it wasn't good enough and didn't meet the average standard. This only got to me because I let how others might have viewed my "shortcomings" become a fear. I failed to appreciate the bigger picture to the core.
I have met and befriended so many talented musicians/artists who got their big breaks through YouTube. That in itself has been a blessing since not everyone has the chance to meet a whole lot of people who live passionately. Some of them, this is their bread and butter. They've built not just names, but businesses for their work. They do it, and they do it well. There's new standards & strategies/formula that you gotta do to "keep up" - I haven't kept my channel going as strong, but it doesn't take away all my memories and accomplishments thus far :) I gotta own what I got & know that since I'm my own person, I love living life differently.
I've been told that I'd have to want it bad enough where I'd die if I didn't get it. I had to have the mentality that I would DIE if I didn't get to do music.
Truth is, I wouldn't die. A part of me would die, but my soul would not die. My soul has been nourished, challenged, uplifted, and molded together by so many components, opportunities, and people in my life.
I always knew that my worth had to be connected to something greater; something that was unconditional and infinite. Let's say something happened to my health and I could no longer sing or hear music. Would my existence be obsolete? Nay.
God blessed me with music and through music I've been able to cultivate relationships and circumstances that have gotten me this far. Ultimately, God is my everything and through Him I've been able to receive all of which fulfill my SOUL! That includes my now husband randomly stumbling onto a video a year ago that technically didn't hit the YouTube standard in terms of # of views lol. I forget that all too often.
I know we're encouraged not to sweat the small stuff, but sometimes we forget to appreciate the small stuff too.
So again with a little over 4,000 new views from the newly posted cover added to my little ol' channel, that's 4,000 more times I've been given a chance and heard.
After all this time, THANK YOU!
Songfully yours,
