Gwilym Writes an Email

Issue #1

This is, technically, the first issue of Gwilym’s Newsletter.

But… I’ve had 6 separate drafts sat unfinished in my Substack dashboard for the last month.

They were all short, actionable, YouTube-focused.

But none of them felt quite right for a first issue.

Not… personal enough?

I dunno.

So instead, for Issue #1 I’ll describe what reading this newsletter should feel like.

What I want this newsletter to be like

1. To the point
When you open one of these emails while, say, queuing at Starbucks, I want you to get some immediate value or enjoyment.

No long intros. No beating around the bush. Sasha Chapin’s cold opens are a big influence here.

2. Written for human beings
Consuming endless YouTube hacks, strategies, and tips can feel a bit dehumanising.

Like I’m a brain that needs to be stuffed with the latest essential “tricks” before I can finally make “good content”.

Yes, there are important YouTube skills to master. A/B testing, writing good hooks, retention analysis.

But I don’t think it’s enough to rely on a grab bag of technical tricks if you’re ambitious about YouTube.

In my experience the best videos come from creators and their teams doing or talking about something that genuinely excites or engages them.

So in this newsletter I also want to talk about:

1. Making work you respect

2. How to get inspired

3. How to do all of this with a team.

Thanks here to Visakan Veerasamy and Anne-Laure Le Cunff, who put the human side of creating first.

3. Actionable & Real

I want any advice I give to be actionable, and based on real experiences.

Yes, there will be some speculation.

But no filler content.

If I don’t know something, I’ll point you to a better-informed source.

Actionable YouTube advice MVPs include:

• Mario Joos for his fantastic YouTube analysis

• George Blackman for his nuanced scriptwriting tips.

4. Bringing you into my world

I wrote Ali Abaal’s newsletter for a year and a half (from roughly here to here), and read it for a year or so before that.

The part I enjoyed most was Ali’s weekly list of ‘Favourite Things’, which introduced me to a lot of incredible internet STUFF:

• Mr Money Mustache

• Wait But Why

• 1000 True Fans

So I want to give you a similar (but YouTube-centric) list every week, to let you see what a YouTube producer/scriptwriter reads, watches, and thinks about all day.

Thanks to Ali (and Tim Ferriss) for this format.

---

That’s it!

To the 36 subscribers whose inboxes this has landed in – thank you for joining me on this journey 🛣️

Gwilym

📮Gwilym’s Inbox

1. MKBHD Editor Reveals Their Secret to Teamwork - A great behind-the-scenes chat with editor Mariah Zenk. Marques’ team mainly work 9am-5pm, which strikes me as unusual in the YouTube world.

2. Colin and Samir interview Jacob Collier
   Colin and Samir interview one of the first great musicians to launch his career through YouTube. I was NOT expecting this interview, but in retrospect it makes perfect sense.

3. Moving into my dream NYC studio - Casey Neistat’s new collaborator Jason Studdard built a creative dreamworld just upstairs from Casey’s NYC studio (losing 2 fingers in the process). Beautiful video.