When I was deeply into creating videos for the channel, I came across a statistic that said most channels die out after 5 years. Indeed, many of my peers from those early years ago have met that fate. I thought it would never happen to CT. But then, life is full of twists and turns and my particular twist came in the form of getting a pub management position. It could be said it was my dream job, to run my own countryside pub. Ah, such good times.
But this would also be the spear in CT's side. Previously I'd made videos in between shifts at my full time job, but when I became manager, well the demands on my time increased from about 35-40 hours a week to well... 60 to 70ish. I used to joke that there was a problem with the pub. It was my problem. This of course, doesn't leave a lot of time to make a video.
When it all collapsed, I found myself in quite the opposite situation to any I'd been in for the last 20 or so years. I'd gone from all of the hours to none, with plenty of time to catch up on well.. anything. But bills don't pay themselves and so it wasn't long before I was putting myself back out there, culminating in the position I currently hold. I've gone from the top to well, the bottom rung.
It was during those early days my wife and I discussed what we should do going forward, and we eventually settled on a plan. Yes, I'd lost my job and our home with it, but the position we had now found ourselves in was not exactly terrible. I was convinced to do something I wasn't really good at. To not chase the Next Thing and just.. chill out for a bit. To take stock of the craziness that my life had been for a couple of years. To figure out what should come next. And so I did.
I mention all this because it does actually tie into my little Youtube channel. Amazingly, even without any input from me, it has grown. Not like, by thousands or anything, but people are still subbing to it. People are still looking at my silly nonsense. But here's the thing; although I still think about making videos, you actually have to y'know, make them. With my time of reflection done with, I find myself wanting to get creative more and more. With the arbitrary milestone of January 1st come and gone, I have decided to re-embrace an old hobby of mine. It's time to get the Cask Theology horse out of the stable and saddle up.
It all begins with this post. Something I've realised about making videos, like with a lot of things really, is that you have to make a habit of it. I've opened this laptop a hundred times over the last year but never gotten as far as doing anything. Except maybe getting distracted. Writing this is the first step. Heck, it's taken me three days to put finger to keyboard properly. But I intend to reclaim what I once had- a small channel with a loyal following that actually paid me every now and then. In my reflections I realised that I made videos for 6 years because I enjoyed doing it.
Cask Theology is about to be Born Again. Hopefully, better this time. I've got plenty of ideas about a slight rebranding and a mental list of the new videos I want to make. I'm going to scan through all my analytics and see if they're a good fit. I think they might be. That said, there is a spectre that hangs over the channel in the form of the video series that I had left behind, notably History of Beer and Apostolic Fathers. I think I owe it to both my viewers and myself to close those out properly. That said, it's been a looong time and I've got to retrace a lot of steps, particularly when it comes to Beer History. I'm going to have to re-read a fair amount. But Challenge Accepted.
Well, would you look at that, an entire blog post. A bit waffley but I hope it goes some way into explaining my mindset as I place my first boot in the stirrup. I'm giving myself a tentative goal of releasing a long form video in March, but given how psyched I am just having written this, that might be way too late an estimate!
Anyways, if you're a loyal fan that saw this thing, thank you for your support during my absence. It's wild so many have stuck around. Thanks for waiting. Thanks for watching. And thanks for seeing where this will go.
See you all soon.
- Matt
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