How I Decide What’s Worth My Time (And What’s Not)

Hi Friend 👋

I made an interesting observation this week. The video where I spill the 100 year vision for Orbit did exceptionally well in the first 20h after release, showing me that the time I spend on packaging is paying off. But that was followed by a huge spike in impressions to people who didn’t click.

Leaving me with a sad CTR of 0.5%.

After a few days I finally saw the full picture why a video that resonated so well with my core viewers tanked so hard with a cold audience.

The podcast conversation was suggested next to videos in French, German and Hindi. Leaving anyone who clicked confused or irritated (I assume) Because I had autodubbing turned on YouTube automatically translated and AI dubbed it for multiple languages but the slightly robotic voices don’t quite transport the emotion and vision from the video.

After learning this lesson I turned the feature off and hopefully get better results on the next one.

Hope your last video didn’t flop as hard.

💛 Valentin

New in Orbit:
The Thumbnail Magnet now comes in dark mode 🌒 and now always pulls hi-res thumbnails

Make choices with confidence

Most creators I know, myself included, face hundreds of decisions each week and that is just about the content. By the time the day ends, even choosing what’s for dinner can feel overwhelming.

But it’s not just video ideas and upload schedules. You might have been invited to an event, offered a sponsorship deal and are brainstorming your own first product, all at once. Pulling you in different directions, often away from the freedom you want to unlock.

That tension hit me again this week.

After last week’s promise to send you only what matters, not just digital clutter, I was stuck choosing between three topics. Then I remembered a little exercise form a call with TJ Maxwell, a brand strategist and community architect.

If you’re juggling too many ideas and unsure what to focus on next, try this:

Write a list of all the things you could be doing (around 10 is plenty) Label them by time horizon, short, medium, long term

Once your list is done move on to step two

Give each idea a score from 1 to 10 in

• Desirability: How much you want to do it

• Doability: How easy is it to pull off

1 being the bottom and 10 the top

Then add them up and if it’s a 15 or above is clear Do It confirmation. Anything below is a hard Not Now decision.

This quick gut-check helps you see what’s both exciting and achievable. So you can stop overthinking and start building momentum. It’s a simple system to cut through creative chaos and especially helpful if you’re in the messy middle, trying to grow without burning out.

We did this workshop a few months back and it’s amazing to see how that unfolded in real life.

The community is open, I hosted 3 events and I’m planing something bigger for September. So I followed through on those.

On the other side the brand partnerships have taken a different turn and I actually declined an offer this week. While this is the most common revenue stream from creators I decided to not take any until I can get the channel to consistently get 1000 views on new videos. More on that in another issue.

Now it is your turn.

Grab a piece of paper, open a spreadsheet, or fire up your Notion dashboard. Write down everything you think you should be doing. Then score each idea for Desirability and Doability.

You don’t need a perfect plan—just a starting point. This simple system can reveal the clearest next move hiding in plain sight. Because the clarity you need is probably already in your list. You just haven’t scored it yet.

My favorite content this week

I’ve been a long time fan of Adam Savage and his deep thoughts on improving your craft. Confronted with a viewer question about imposter syndrome he built this QEST equation helping you beat that voice in your head.

How Stanford Teaches AI-Powered Creativity in Just 13 Minutes

Which video gave you an aha moment this week?

Cheat Code I discovered this week

If you are using an LLM to help you with videos you definitely asked it to come up with clickable titles - with mixed results. This week I simply asked it instead to summarize it and the results are surprisingly good at showing you what the video is actually about.

Summarize this transcript in 10,8,6,5,4,3,2 Words. Give five options each.

In case you missed it:

⬅️ Last week I share my file organization system
➡️ Next week I’m doing a workshop on my full Packaging Bot System. Want to join?