this is the way ^

Many times I have soft started, fizzling in self doubt, procrastination, excuses. I’m a 55 year old with a youtube dream!

Maybe I should get started? 😂 Jan 1, 2025: I am launching finally. One YT video weekly, tiktoks, reels, posts etc. More pix on my IG @mygeartv - thx for reading. 🤙 (11/11)

Covid in 2020, world goes nuts. I keep buying gear. Someday I’ll do this! (I tell myself, unsure if I believed it).

Fast forward to December 2024. This is my gear shelf (post 1 pic) check the alt tag for specifics. I had set dates for launch before, then fizzled. ADHD is fun. that way. (10/11)

I was stockpiling gear, using it on jobs, moving jobs around so I could focus on this YT project. Life had other ideas, well.. ADHD had other ideas. 🤦‍♂️

Procrastination, imposter syndrome, everything I could think of told me I would be wasting my time. Yet, I kept buying gear. WHY!!?? 😂🤦‍♂️ (9/11)

Early 2018, I start buying bodies, lenses, tripods, accessories, you name it.

My wife and I split our finances down the middle after bills were paid, savings socked away. She invested her $, I invest about 40% of my $ and with the other 60% I’d buy gear to review someday.. I hope. (8/11)

I appreciate gear is expensive, really expensive in some cases. I’ve been buying gear for six + years now, actually longer.

I don’t have each eco system covered as I want (yet) but I do own a lot of gear so maybe I can help someone not make the same mistakes I have made. That’s the goal. (7/11)

Every item reviewed is owned with receipts. I could review honestly if I regretted buying the item. No shade intended for reviewers that get loaners of course.

If someone spends their own money on an item, I assume they’ll have a more informed opinion about it is all. Does anyone care tho? (6/11)

Buy the gear, use the gear, take notes on the good, the bad, the ugly. Almost like I would be making the channel I wished I’d found when researching lenses.

Honest, unbiased, this item is good or bad, this one is overrated sort of vibe. Actually say don’t buy this product sometimes. (5/11)

It was during this time that I had an idea. An idea that six years later still haunts me.

What if I started buying gear to created a channel where I reviewed gear, from a “I spent my own money on this gear so you don’t have to!” perspective. Does it live up to the hype or not? (4/11)

The reviewer makes their video for free because they were loaned the gear, hoping for traffic (new subscribers) or affiliate sales.

Makes sense they might leave out of something felt cheap, or if their test photos had bad bokeh etc. ⁣Upset a company and you get no more loaner gear maybe? (3/11)

The marketing phrases/terms a company creates to make the lens sound better, every video touched on these same terms. Wait.. what’s happening here?⁣

After research I learned that brands will reach out and loan gear to some reviewers, also supplying talking points. (2/11)