Micro businesses

[suomalainen]

Interesting ideas. Fwiw, and everyone has different tolerances, but I hated doing retail work. The closer a job (business) is to retail, the worse my reaction to it. So the idea of taking something I find fun and trying to eke out a few bucks from it by dealing with retail customers makes my skin crawl (let alone all the other non-customer-facing chores a small business requires). The idea of taking something I don't find fun and trying to eke a few bucks from it by dealing with retail customers doesn't even interest me enough to have a reaction to it. This is ultimately what keeps me on the traditional path of keeping money and hobbies completely separate.

[mountainFrugal]

Micro-businesses in my town-
Food prep for backpacking guides/trips (seasonal)
Spring plant starts of varieties bred to the local environment
Tamales
Sourkraut
Veggie and Pork Spring Rolls
Hotdogs (events)
Wood (various parts- harvest, split, dry, delivery)
Yard Waste Removal (we get a hand written note by neighbor every year if we have not raked yet... passive aggressive business plan! Have not taken them up on it.. haha)
Mushroom Foraging

[7Wannabe5]

Fwiw, and everyone has different tolerances, but I hated doing retail work. The closer a job (business) is to retail, the worse my reaction to it. So the idea of taking something I find fun and trying to eke out a few bucks from it by dealing with retail customers makes my skin crawl (let alone all the other non-customer-facing chores a small business requires).

I do start out by wearing every hat with my micro businesses. But I think I actively try to remove myself from the process using machines and outsourcing. Then I become a boring shipping clerk and I feel dissatisfied. And then I have to create something new so I can start the process over again.

I agree with you on the routine chore aspect. The simple solution is to hire somebody else/automate/or outsource the repetitive boring parts of the business. Young people who would like to acquire some skills or job experience for their resumes or college applications are good candidates. Give them as much responsibility/autonomy/complexity as they can handle and the alliance will be mutually beneficial.

Also, it has been my experience that with the exception of the 5% of humans who are PITAs in any setting, I tend to like/value other humans who like/value the same things I do, so selling stuff/services I like/value to other humans who like/value the same stuff services (as opposed to generic "retail customers") is fun. This is yet another example of how giant corporations (and other giant organizations) ruin things for everyone. For instance, consider the difference between working in a generously stocked independent bookstore in the most-educated city in the U.S. and providing thoughtful recommendations to engaged customers versus working in that same bookstore after it has been taken over by lowest-common-denominator-corporate-idiots who have mandated "suggestion selling", as in "Would you like some fries with your burger" horrifyingly morphed to "Would you like the latest Danielle Steel novel to go with your purchase of "Object-Oriented Ontology"?

Similarly, even though I wouldn't say that my young students share my appreciation for mathematics, I feel like with every little rung I help them up the ladder of math skills, it is like I am providing them with a high quality, classic tool that may serve them well for their lifetime. As in, okay may never master the calculus, but at least no longer counting on fingers.

Selling and entrepreneuralship get a bad vibe due to those individuals (like the Wall Street Player crew) who believe and promote that taking advantage of the weaknesses of others is the way to profit. If you just want to make a quick buck, sure this is definitely a way to go, and I would definitely give a pass to those who are clever enought to take advantage of the weaknesses of the entrenched and powerful( I will personally buy a drink for anybody who can make some money running an arbitrage hack on J.BozoZon, or by publishing expose of her work as Dominatrix to multiple CEOs, but not for somebody who made their first million as a negligent absentee slum-lord or fake cancer-preventing nutriceutical hawker.) However, for those who are frugal enough that money is already nearly a solved problem, a lifestyle business or businesses should be able to afford respect/liking/appreciation/care for your customers/partners/employees etc. Nobody can achieve mastery in every possible realm, so trade/barter of quality goods and services with others who appreciate them must be towards the good.

Another extremely simple example. Jacob has achieved mastery of woodworking. He could set up a card table on his front lawn with some of his woodworking items on it and a sign indicating that he is willing to trade for bags of rice, lentils or any assorted canned goods. His hourly wage would likely be trivial, but his expense line would go down, and all parties engaged would benefit, and so would the planet due to his sustainable wood-working practices. Zero interaction with customers necessary. If you think about it, a good deal of the friction on interaction with other humans when exchanging goods/services is due to lack of trust.

[7Wannabe5]

Another thought I had was that the math could be made cooler (more fun for me) for "semi" or non-stock-market version ERE if SafeWithdrawalRate was generalized towards SustainableGrowthRate. The SGR takes into account Owner Draw (how much you need to pay yourself to be happy to do this activity(s) and survive), how much Equity you can/want to Invest/Retain in enterprise, and net income of the enterprise. This is pretty much why (not exactly) the SWR is very close to average GDP growth rate.

Most small businesses fail for the same reason that many overly optimistic retirement plans fail. Owner cash draw proves to be more of a problem than profit making. Of course, at the other end of the spectrum, it become interesting to consider how much equity you assign to your ownership of you. Breaking this up into sub-categories could also be revelatory of dependencies. For instance, how much are you worth to yourself as a bodyless brain (e.g. doing math on the internets) vs. how much are you worth to yourself as a brainless body (e.g. being a sugar-baby or UPS truck loader)? The upside of a completely passive, highly capitalized investment scheme is that "you" will be able to maintain owner-draw even in the eventuality that you become virtually brainless and bodyless. Unfortunately, that is also the downside. EcoERE requires that you at least wear the second hat of Frugal Home Economist, so avoids this dilemma.

https://cfoperspective.com/sustainable- ... e-formula/

[ffj]

That's impressive. I've seen a lot of channels sprout up in combination with solopreneur service businesses. Dog walker/groomer that films the dogs, beekeeper that films himself capturing a hive, lawn mower that transforms dilapidated yards into something more pleasing, etc. It's easy to see how you can double dip to make more money from labor you're already doing. The issue with all of these is that the barrier to entry is low and thus competition is high. I think it's also highly niche dependent. I've been doing YouTube for about a year with >77k views and >13k watch hours but I will never make a cent from that because I have <500 subscribers. Comparatively, I've made $9 in profit from having one patron who thought it was worth paying me $5 a month. I've been recognized IRL 2-3 times from my YouTube videos, which just goes to show you the power of the YouTube algorithm to blast out niche content to its target audience. My niche is small, with the largest channel at about 40k subs.

It took me a year to get monetized so don't despair. Thirteen thousand watch hours for 77K views is pretty impressive actually, you just have to get over 1,000 subs. YouTube pays you for hours watched, not necessarily for the amount of subscribers, so once that second metric is met you'll do fine.

[Ego]

Another good find that made the news:
https://bidstitch.com/blog/15000-jacket ... will-bins/

[bos]

A friend of mine has a micro-business. It's a mix of youtube and 3D printing. It sounded very romantic, but I was surprised when I joined him for a day of work. It comes very close to my understanding of a sweatshop. He is folding boxes, labeling, cleaning 3D printed parts, fixing broken printers, customers receiving broken items, packages lost in mail.

Each job will come with customers and the more customers the more friction. That's why I personally see consulting as a possible mini job in my last stage. You can already start consult from 1 day a week and only need to maintain communication to a single client. At the same time I have never consulted so maybe I am romanticising this again

[jacob]

ETA: I think I'm just repeating what Sclass said above.

What's important is not so much what one does to make money, but how one makes the money. I think the salaryman/workman/businessman/renaissanceman quadrant describes this well. The "feel" of acquiring money or generating value is very different in each quadrant. Indeed, if one has one ever tried one of them, making money in a different way can be very exciting, mindblowing even, to the point of "I can't believe that I'm making money this way".

To give an example from the OP post: Tutoring/teaching.

Salaryman: Teaching one of more classes for a semester. You show up, teach the class, and a fixed amount rolls into your account every two weeks.
Workman: Tutoring students. You likely have a revolving client list. You charge each client individually, probably by the hour.
Businessman: Hiring tutors and dealing with clients. Perhaps a website where students and tutors log in to chat and you charging for the infrastructure.
Renaissanceman: You write a textbook, set up you own publishing company, perhaps you hold seminars and charge entrance (basically all of the above).

I've tried all of them and not surprisingly, I gravitate towards the renaissance quadrant. Personally, in my experience as soon as money gets involved, it alters the experience materially. This can happen both in a good way and in a bad way. Money is not the only extrinsic motivator than can alter the experience. Popularity or ideology can do the same. "Audience capture" is real and soon you might find yourself working in a way that does not make you happy because you're more concerned about money, ratings, etc.

On the other hand, since most of the world runs on money, focusing on whether one's activities actually make money is a good way to stay connected with the rest of the world.

[ducknald_don]

For me a large part of it is just being able to say no. This is something I couldn't do as an employee and was difficult when I was consulting. Once I started to develop a product business it became easier as dropping one client out of a hundred doesn't make much difference to the bottom line.

I guess you can do that as an employee providing you are in a strong financial position. I think I'd still find that unpleasant and stressful though.

[Bankai]

Mentioned several times in this topic but a YouTube channel meets the criteria - it's extremely flexible, potentially makes money even years after the work was done (similarly to royalties from books/music) and has a very high ceiling. Plus to be good at it several skills need to be levelled up which is both satisfying and can translate into other endeavours. On the other hand, barriers to entry are very low so it's worth to be (very) good at the thing you're talking about or have some other unfair advantage.

[sky]

The reasons I would like to have one or more microbusinesses are:
Reduce boredom
Have something interesting to do
Make something that people like so you can be proud
Feel like you are profiting or getting ahead with something
Feel like you are an artist creating something of beauty and quality

For a while I delivered for doordash, which I found to be a lot of fun. I enjoyed the thrill of getting orders, deciding whether it was profitable to take the order, and then racing around town to pick up and deliver. I quit after a while because doordash was constantly playing games trying to get you to take low pay orders, and because the risk of getting in an accident was greater than the payout. I was driving my old car so I did not have much to lose, but even then you risk a few thousand dollars and your health. I could do deliveries with my ebike, but the risk of injury is just too high.

I thought about doing low key lawnmowing, using an electric mower instead of noisy mowers. But I don't really enjoy mowing lawns.

One year I started a few hundred seedlings, mostly herbs and vegetables, and had a small self serve table. I might have made $200 after expenses, probably less than $1 per hour of attention. I wouldn't call it work, it was actually fun. But on the other hand, probably not worth doing.

One thing I would like to get back into doing, is making croissants. When I had a bakery, I thought that making a good croissant by hand was the high point of the baker's art. There is a huge amount of satisfaction when customers thank you and tell you they love your product. To do it right, you have to focus and roll the dough to just the right size and shape, butter the dough and fold it just a certain way. Really satisfying when it comes out right. If you do it for a while you can learn to produce a baked good of high quality that is rare in today's mechanized world. The downside is that if you start regular production, it becomes a full time job, making dough at a certain time, letting it rest in a cooler, starting work early in the morning to have fresh product for the morning customers... yeah, forget that, I'm not working all night anymore. I would also need a separate room to bake in, which I don't have at the moment.

I could do boat cleaning and waxing, or boat repair. But those things remind me why I sold my boat, so no thanks.

My wife works at estate sales. I could go to sales early and pick out the good stuff for resale, but I rarely find anything interesting to me, or anything that looks profitable. We live in an area that is not that wealthy, so there are not a lot of high value things left over for the sale. My wife has a booth, a small store of antiques which she gets from estate sales and garage sales. She loses money, it is a hobby.

I could make some kind of ultralight backpacking gear, there are a lot of people who buy that stuff, many of whom just collect gear. But I am not that good at sewing, I think the quality required to sell gear as a pro is higher than I am able to do. I suspect it would end up being a nonprofit business because there is a lot of competition.

While I would like to have the challenge and reward of some type of microbusiness, I can't think of any business activity that I would want to do. So I spend my time walking, and working on various things in my garage, maintaining the house and garden.

I sometimes think about getting a job or volunteering at something, but that would require being at certain places at certain times. I kind of like not having a schedule or commitments. So I remain somewhat bored but in a pleasant state of doing whatever I feel like doing at the moment.

[loutfard]

I redid my short list of side income by tax efficiency:
- street artist: 0% income tax, undeclared
- amateur artist: 0% income tax, up to ~3k€/year, up to 100€/day, "free" government platform
- "flexi job" (specific low paid jobs few people want): 0%, up to ~12k€/year. Think dishwasher, mover, stage builder. Generally pays ~12.5€/h net.
- "sharing economy": 10% income tax + platform fee, up to ~6k€ gross/year. Think dishwasher, private tutoring, bicycle courier.
- medical or psychological experiments
- (possibly) content creator: 15% copyright tax up to 70k€/year. This requires an intermediary. Need to check if own llc would qualify.
- active management of own real estate portfolio: sky high transaction fees (>15% one way), low rental taxation, max. 16.5% capital gains taxation
- small or medium side gig with no expenses using standard deduction : ~45% tax up to ~8.8k€ net/year
- small or medium side gig, any other: ~64% tax
- large side gig, optimised through own llc: 35-40% tax

[7Wannabe5]

Renaissanceman: You write a textbook, set up you own publishing company, perhaps you hold seminars and charge entrance (basically all of the above).

Okay, so now we are functioning almost exactly like Benjamin Franklin circa 1750 (except we didn't need to physically escape our indenturement as apprentice to older brother, due to society having moved on a wee bit vis-a-vis concept of chattel.) What next?

On the other hand, since most of the world runs on money, focusing on whether one's activities actually make money is a good way to stay connected with the rest of the world.

Very true, but another fairly obvious dichotomy that could be added to the model would be Private vs. Public/Non-Profit. For example, Benjamin Franklin also obviously performed a great deal of work in the public sector in alignment with his ENTP value of Liberty as early demonstrated by his escape from indenturement and leading naturally to desire to throw off shackles of Old World tyranny. You mentioned popularity and ideology as motivators beyond money, and I would suggest that "ideology" can also be raised and generalized towards "metric in alignment with values." For example, when I have engaged in "lifestyle business" or "semi-volunteer" work, money would be just one metric or factor under consideration. When humans get burned out on non-profit work, relatively low pay is sometimes the problem, but often it is recognition that the metric tied to the values-based difference in the world one hopes to achieve is not being met.

1) Use math skills to engage in commission sales of options to purchase time-share wetlands condos at Glengarry Glen Ross: $60/hr. (-$90/hr. for damage done to nature and humanity.)= net ( -$30/hr. and associated crappy emotional state if reflective of true core values and comprehension of systemic effects.)

2) Use math skills to tutor low income children: $18/hr (+ $17/hr benefit to humanity in future) = net $35/hr. and associated bright emotional state if reflective of true core values and comprehension of systemic effects.)

One systems statement about the flow of money which has stuck with me is "Money flows towards you when you do the work that other humans want you to do." However, I have since amended it to read, "Money flows towards you when you do the work that other humans who have access to money want you to do and they are aware that you are doing it and you have a cash jar in place.*." Other somewhat measurable stuff that might flow towards you in lieu of money might be acclaim, hugs, gold stars, trophies, praise, etc. The internal flows created as your work serves to make the world more in alignment with your own internal vision-in-alignment-with-values would be towards self-esteem, self-actualization, and self-transcendence.

Also, as can be evidenced in the math attached to (1) sometimes doing the opposite of the work other humans who have access to money want you to do can be more in alignment with one's core value structure towards personal growth. As Benjamin Franklin put it, "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God."

*"and they are aware you are doing it and you have a cash jar in place." is towards recognition of core function of marketing and/or exposure/boundary/cachement in any market. Obviously, you will never earn money for your poetry if you hide it in a drawer, and you will never earn money for your poetry if you consistently give it away for free. For example,verbally clever men at Level Green often attempt to promote pure "values" based sexual exchange to their potential female partners, and not so clever men at Level Green may believe that this is something that actually exists**. The subsequent cultural downside of this "con" was its obvious contribution to the reactionary Big Chill of the 1980s and neoliberal flows of CO2 resulting in current level of approximately 1 associated severe weather event per day on planet Earth.

**Unfortunately, many well-meaning Neo-Trad men currently often found speaking on the internet believe that the21st century practice of polyamory is just another version of this Level Green "free love" con, and gallantly attempt to protect their female partners and fans from it. I might refer to this tendency as "feminine gaze cash jar blindness" or the Briarpatch Paradox.

[white belt]

Mentioned several times in this topic but a YouTube channel meets the criteria - it's extremely flexible, potentially makes money even years after the work was done (similarly to royalties from books/music) and has a very high ceiling. Plus to be good at it several skills need to be levelled up which is both satisfying and can translate into other endeavours. On the other hand, barriers to entry are very low so it's worth to be (very) good at the thing you're talking about or have some other unfair advantage.

I talked a bit about my foray into YouTube earlier in this thread. I'd say for the first ~6-12 months that I was largely in agreement with your characterization about leveling up. However, I ran into a few issues. There are many forms of content and genres on YouTube, but not all of them will net new views months or years after posting. I imagine things like DIY tutorials or creative pursuits are probably the best at consistently drawing views for years, but my niche of long form gameplay videos netted very few views after a few months (I'd get the most views in the first 48 hours, then it would slow down to a trickle).

Gradually I found my job morphing into that of a video editor and social media manager. I did automate things as best I could to save time for some of the mundane tasks. The algorithm becomes very specialized so there is a temptation to release content that fits my previous niche perfectly, rather than branching off with new ideas. So no longer could I make videos that I wanted to make, but rather I was a slave to the curated audience based on my previous videos. Release a few videos in a row that try to branch off and suddenly you'll find all of your metrics decreasing, in some cases taking weeks or months to recover. Want to take a week off from recording a video? Your numbers are going to suffer because the algorithm likes to promote channels that put out frequent content. This seemed to zap a lot of the satisfaction that initially I had with the whole process.

It's possible I was just in the wrong niche, but from what I saw channels that had more success usually had very flashy productions which require time and/or $$$ to film, edit, promote, etc.

So, in theory a YouTube channel is extremely flexible since it is largely location independent and asynchronous, however I'd say it has less flexibility compared to e.g. a working man who fixes Y and can weeks or months off as he pleases. There is also a psychological toll associated with having to directly deal with a large internet audience. In fact, one of the first things that I attempted to automate away was interactions on social media, but the AI tools weren't quite up to the task yet. Maybe that has changed by now.

[delay]

So no longer could I make videos that I wanted to make, but rather I was a slave to the curated audience based on my previous videos. Release a few videos in a row that try to branch off and suddenly you'll find all of your metrics decreasing, in some cases taking weeks or months to recover.

Thanks for sharing your experience. It seems a vlog is like a clothes brand that becomes part of someone's identity. So "branching off" would be Nike starting to make formal shoes. "Customers hate change" is true in more professions than vlogging. Music stars hate replaying their greatest hits, yet that is what their fans want and expect. At least vloggers can create a new identity when they want to start a new brand.

Want to take a week off from recording a video? Your numbers are going to suffer because the algorithm likes to promote channels that put out frequent content. This seemed to zap a lot of the satisfaction that initially I had with the whole process.

Yeah, when watching a vlog is something like a ritual for winding down after the work week, you'd hate it when the vlog is not there. Many vloggers have a few episodes on the shelf for when they want to take a week off.

What I always wonder is how many successful vloggers there really are. I don't know anyone who makes a living from online advertisements or subscriptions.

[Bankai]

There are many forms of content and genres on YouTube, but not all of them will net new views months or years after posting. I imagine things like DIY tutorials or creative pursuits are probably the best at consistently drawing views for years, but my niche of long form gameplay videos netted very few views after a few months (I'd get the most views in the first 48 hours, then it would slow down to a trickle).

Yeah, things like news or current events almost by definition have no lasting power and get almost all their views in the first few days. Then there's the other end of the spectrum called 'evergreen' so tutorials, lectures etc. as long as the thing in the video stays relevant. Everything else is somewhere in between and from my experience, long-form gaming content can certainly get views over the long term. Yes, during the first 48 hours or so after release the video is mainly watched by the existing audience. But then, depending on the reception/satisfaction, it's promoted to people out with your 'regulars' and depending on how they like it, might be getting views for days or weeks until eventually flatlining. But even flatlined videos occasionally get resurrected and get spikes in views out of the blue, months or years after. And even flatlined videos might add to a lot if there are enough of them (some big gaming channels get as much as 60%+ of their views from 'backlog' i.e. existing library of years' old content).

The algorithm becomes very specialized so there is a temptation to release content that fits my previous niche perfectly, rather than branching off with new ideas. So no longer could I make videos that I wanted to make, but rather I was a slave to the curated audience based on my previous videos. Release a few videos in a row that try to branch off and suddenly you'll find all of your metrics decreasing, in some cases taking weeks or months to recover.

Yeah, specialisation pays off. Youtube can take months to find an audience for a channel and that audience might have very little overlap with the new thing the creator might want to do. And generally the bigger the change, the less overlap there will be. It's the same IRL - if you have a bakery and people queue in the morning to buy a doughnut and a coffee from you, but you really want to be selling that fishing equipment, your doughnut lovers will be at best confused if you suddenly try to upsell them rods. The consensus in the creators' community is: same audience - same channel, different audience - different channel. So for fishing, you should open another store but something like birthday cakes which is much closer to doughnuts might work out fine with your customers.

Want to take a week off from recording a video? Your numbers are going to suffer because the algorithm likes to promote channels that put out frequent content. This seemed to zap a lot of the satisfaction that initially I had with the whole process.

Well if in your typical week, the content released on that week contributes, say, 50% of the views in that week, then it's only natural that with no new content, your views will drop by that 50% (in reality it's more like 55-60% since some of the views on your older content are usually new people who found you through that new video but also watched some of your old stuff). But if you then start posting consistently again, your audience will come back. How many channels have you abandoned forever because they didn't post for a week? However, it's certainly possible to take a break - either by doing the work in advance and uploading/scheduling for weeks/months/years ahead, or by simply communicating to your audience that you're taking x time off for y reason. Again, from my personal experience, people understand RL is a priority. An extreme example of doing the job in advance - there is this foodtuber who was morbidly obese and suddenly uploaded a video of himself eating, but he was thin. Turned out he recorded and scheduled for 2 years ahead and took that time to sort himself out.

It's possible I was just in the wrong niche, but from what I saw channels that had more success usually had very flashy productions which require time and/or $$$ to film, edit, promote, etc.

You touch a good point here. Overall quality on YouTube is going up all the time and long gone are times when uploading a video of oneself climbing a tree would get thousands of views. To get traction, it's necessary to distinguish oneself from the competition. For a small minority of people their 'personality' will do the trick, but for the 99%, it's either doing something better, or different than everyone else (and preferably both). A flashy production is one way to achieve that but by no means the only way.

[Bankai]

What I always wonder is how many successful vloggers there really are. I don't know anyone who makes a living from online advertisements or subscriptions.

Success has different definitions for different people. Strictly financially - probably millions. For any particular channel, you can look up their monthly views (there are free websites for that) and estimate their adsense revenue from what niche they're in. And for bigger channels, ads might be as little as 1/3 or less of their total income (the rest being sponsorships, members/donations, affiliates, selling products etc.).

So a finance channel (top paying niche) with 1m monthly views might be making as much as 20k from ADs and another maybe 40k from everything else.

But YouTube has very much a pyramid structure with the vast majority of channels making zero. I read that only 7% of channels even reach 1k subs and only 4% ever get monetised (become partners). And of those majority probably makes close to nothing.

[basuragomi]

After two years of being an incorporated "small business owner" I've averaged a burn rate of about $90/month. That includes (virtual) office rental, tax filing, banking and payroll. Of course, that can all be skipped depending on your risk tolerance and fondness for bookkeeping. In Canada we're VAT-exempt to up $25k in revenue, which is fine for a labour services-based business. Taxes are about 12% at this income level.

Why bother vs. sole proprietorship? You get a great ROI for pension contributions at this income level. The legitimacy helps a lot to get access to more serious business resources like mentorship, debt, space rentals and employees. If you want serious income from a solo Youtube channel this structure probably doesn't make sense.

One of the minor hurdles moving onwards is that insurance is a requirement for basically any venue rental, product, or general-public-labour-services business. Not that it's hard to get, but it is a big jump in burn rate.

[7Wannabe5]

I've only recently started watching videos on YouTube very often, and it seems to me that psychology as well as popularity does contribute to the success of many channels. For example, reaction videos are almost entirely psychologically motivated with just a bit of expertise in the mix. We like other humans who like and emotionally respond to things the same way that we do. There have even been experiments where this is shown to be true for human infants. The odd thing is the para-social manner in which the video-casters engage in this manner with multiple viewers, and thereby ping their "you are my friend" buttons.

An entrepreneurial coach I saw on "Diary of a CEO" suggested that it's all about creating a personal brand these days. Blech. One downside of being a hyper-verbal human is that these days this will frequently lead to opportunities or suggestions that would result in having to appear on camera, which I hate unless I am actually costumed as a character. For example, I was a pink octopus on a cable children's television show, and that was fun, but I didn't want to be the human who did the television interviews for a political action group in which I was involved.

It's interesting how almost everybody born after circa 1995 seems to be entirely accustomed to always being in the line-sight of a camera. I remember attending my Gen Z ex-step-daughter's high school graduation and being struck by how every girl knew how to strike a pose as they accepted their diploma. I'm not sure what mix of desire to retain old school level of anonymity vs. awkwardness/vanity renders this anathema to me. It's not simple inhibition, because I was only mildly annoyed when one of my exes posted semi-anonymous erotic photos of me without my full overt consent. Kind of like I don't mind being out there, but I want it to be a good deal more "blurred" or compartmentalized than the concept of a personal brand promotion would allow for.

It also makes me think about how I get bored with personal fashion, because I am strictly limited in exploring that space by my own body type, coloring, lifestyle, budget, ethnicity, age, etc. For example, I like bright colors, but it is difficult for me to wear them, because I am so pale, and I like hip-hop style, but others tell me I am too old too wear it. etc. etc. Similarly, I might very much like an idea, but wouldn't consider myself to be well-suited as on camera presenter/promoter of the idea. Is it common for people to produce a YouTube channel or similar, but round up somebody(s) else to be on camera?

[jacob]

Is it common for people to produce a YouTube channel or similar, but round up somebody(s) else to be on camera?

The interview format is pretty popular. Asking others about their ideas circumvents the need to come up with your own ideas. If you're really good, you can even invite two interviewees and have them square off against each other while you lean back and relax. Probably not gonna get around at least having a stamp-sized video feed of your face on for the duration + the challenge to avoid looking bored for as long as it lasts.

There are also audio-only channels.