I have a very important announcement. I put my heart and soul into Bite Size Vegan. I never know if I’m making the right choices, but I do everything in my power to be an effective voice for the animals, and the planet.
There are some huge changes happening with Bite Size Vegan, with the most immediate and obvious one happening next week. I’ll tell you what that is, then the main reasons why it’s happening and then the reasons it scares the bajeesus out of me. (yay!)
And about my upcoming speeches, which will be another overseas adventure so stay tuned for that!
I have a whole lot to cover in this video so I’m going to try and keep it as short as possible while trying to inform you of the bajillion logistical things I rarely have a chance to share on my channel since they’d seem weird in the middle of a formal educational video.
So, I’ve talked this over with my supporters on Patreon, better known as the Nugget Army, and they have generously given their blessing. I cannot overstate how much my Patreon family community means to me. My patrons are at the core of Bite Size Vegan, literally making what I do possible, and I involve them in every major decision I make.
So what’s this big announcement? Starting this coming week, the first week of August 2016, I will be reducing my video production here on YouTube to one video a week. I’ve been cranking out 2-3 videos a week without fail now for a solid two years, come hell or high water. Even when Ooby passed away. Even with all the traveling and speaking I’ve been doing this year.
Some of you have no doubt heard me breakdown the not-so-bite-size workload of Bite Size Vegan before, and I promise this isn’t a whole video dedicated to my busyness. I’m sharing these details out of respect for you, my audience, as I feel you deserve to know what’s leading to this decision. So bear with me. I’ll try to do fun stuff now and again to keep you entertained. [You kinda have to watch the video for the fun stuff. It’s pretty fantastic.]
As the channel has grown, so has the depth of my research, thoroughness of my citations, and intensity of my editing. Dedicating over a hundred hours to a single video is no longer an exceptional occurrence – I mean did you see the video I did on that messed up pork coloring book? I animated the crap out of that. You don’t even want to know how long this took.
And honestly I could easily pour a month of research into each video. But I keep the insane pace I do because there is so much that needs to be covered, so many animals who need their stories told, so many aspects of veganism that beg for elucidation.
The fight is never over.
In short, my video production alone is beyond a full-time job. When I add in maintaining all the social media platforms, promoting the videos, creating memes, expanding the reach of Bite Size Vegan beyond the place of barely maintaining status quo, and a bunch of other stuff I won’t bore you with…though I’m probably too late on that…it’s obvious that something has to change.
But this isn’t about me taking a vacation or making free time. It’s about effectively allocating my time strategically to the sustainability and long-term growth of Bite Size Vegan.
I’ve already started working on a huge part of this plan.
As I’ve hit the limit of what I can accomplish as one person—and then stubbornly pushed beyond that, as I do—I have to build a team, which, in and of itself is a full-time job. In all reality, the workload of Bite Size Vegan could easily sustain four full-time employees, however I don’t currently have the funds to bring on paid help at that level.
This directly ties into a second huge project I’ll be focusing on: the e-courses I’ve been talking about for over a year and a half now!
I keep pushing these to the back-burner because I always prioritize creating free, readily accessible content. But finally getting at least the first e-course launched will serve to open the online academy I’ve been researching and working on little by little, and intend to grow into a one-of-a-kind vegan academy that has courses for everyone, from the very newest vegan to activists-in-training.
Income from the courses would ideally make it possible to take on a paid volunteer coordinator and/or business manager and finally bring Bite Size Vegan into the realm of sustainability.
I could then make the videos without working through the night till 4am and uploading them with fingers crossed that there aren’t any errors, then sleeping 40 minutes before waking up again to finish the blog post, citations, and start the day-long process of promotion with tweets and memes and posts and comments and all of that, and don’t get too bored cause it’s finally the time when I talk about the speeches so get excited!
A third pressing priority is actually what brought my schedule insanity to its current level, though also produced some of my most effective videos ever: traveling and speaking. On September 11th, I’ll be speaking in Dublin, Ireland. You can always find upcoming talks and events on the About page.
I’ll also be speaking in the UK that week with Manchester Pig Save. The date for that talk isn’t quite locked down but will be sometime during the 13th-16th.
And Manchester Pig Save wanted me to open this to all my England viewers: if you have a venue or opportunity for me to speak during these few days, please contact MPS on their Facebook or at ManchesterPigSave @ gmail.com and we’ll see what all I can fit in! Due to the short window, I’ll have to limit possibilities to England itself.
So, these are some—though certainly not all—of the reasons for this change. [And aren’t you glad it’s not all of them!]
And there are even more reasons why this is terrifying for me to even consider. [Yay you get to hear some of them!]
Obviously fewer videos will mean less activity on the channel and an unavoidable dip in the growth rate. After two years of never stopping to take a breath in order to keep things growing so that the message can reach people, it’s rather scary to know things will slow down. However, it’s with long-term growth at heart.
Additionally, it means taking that much longer to get through all of the topics, questions, and series I have planned.
While it’s hard for me not to see this as failing the animals—who need and deserve every voice screaming out on their behalf—I’m going to one video so that I can put in the hours to build a firmer foundation and broader platform upon which their stories can be told.
As for the logistics, I’ll remain consistent with videos every Wednesday and may still have the occasional Monday or Friday, so if you haven’t already done so, be sure to hit the little gear next to my channel’s subscribe button—or the bell if you’re on your phone—and ask to be notified. [see tutorial video at the base of this post for more info on that]
Unless you don’t want to. Cause that’s… cool too.
And you can also catch up with me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter(kinda), where I already post in between videos. Or sign up for my free Newsletter at the bottom of this post for weekly updates and insights, which give you access to my free ebook as well.
And to really get the inside scoop and have a hand in this whole process as it evolves, join us in the Nugget Army on Patreon.
Lastly—yes it’s almost over—please know if you have emailed or snail mailed me—love the snail mail, by the way!—any lack of response—or super late response—is by no means an indication of the importance of your message! I’m doing my very best. Same goes for comments. Please know I so value each and every one. They seriously keep me going and it irks me to no end that I can’t answer them all.
Okay it’s finally ending!!!!
Thank you so much for your support and for helping to bring Bite Size Vegan this far. Please keep watching, commenting, and sharing the videos so we can take this to the next level and reach even more people with the truth! I’ll see you with a fresh nugget next week!
Now go live vegan, know that I’m going to be hyperventilating Monday morning when I don’t post a video for the first time in 2 years, and I’ll see you Wednesday, when hopefully I can breathe again.
[and check out the very end of the video for a ridiculous bonus…you’re welcome.]— Emily Moran Barwick
Andrea Hurt says
Hi Emily! I hope you’re well! I just wanted to suggest contacting MAKESCHOOL to see if you can retain the team support you need.
sally anne hubbard says
Emily, you are NOT a flash in the pan. You are raising awareness for the benefit of all animals and educating so many people.
You have made enormous changes so far and I know many more will come.
Emily Barwick says
Wow thank you so much Sally Anne!
kathleen lavelle says
You’re so cute and funny, Emily !!! Love you. Oh yah and your plans sound great !!!!
ron landskroner says
Congratulations, Emily. IMHO, cutting back on video production is a wise move. I do hope maintaining good physical and mental health remain top priorities so that you are able to continue the great work.
Emily Barwick says
I have a series on nutrients! See here