This year’s Thanksgiving is October 14th and this date is very special for me and for my YouTube channel – it’s our birthday. I posted my first video on October 14th, 2017 and that’s the day my channel was born. It’s been a very nice journey – this is my 57th video and I am mostly proud of the quality of content I produce. We don’t have too many subscribers yet – just a bit shy of two thousand – but I hope it will get better eventually.
In the very beginning of this journey I promised myself not to fall into a trap of getting notoriety through insults and personal attacks and I stayed true to this though I see a lot of misinformation online and it would be much easier for me just to criticize others, which, is not my mission. Our mission is to promote health and evidence-based health information in a positive and constructive way.
I really enjoy the questions and suggestions you make – I had several Q&A videos with Dr.Devos aka The Lifting Dermatologist, I answered some questions from my subscribers, I had a couple of interviews, including the podcast with Alan Roberts from Every Damn Day Fitness and I see that some YouTubers started responding to my comments to their videos and acknowledge me in their works, like Dr.Rohin Francis from MedLife Crisis and Dr. Stan Ekberg.
I also must say that I am guilty of not producing content regularly and not because I don’t have much to say – quite the opposite. It turned out that it takes a long time to prepare a solid video – English is not my first language and being a perfectionist, I must make sure that everything is well-worded and factually correct. In fact, I spend most of the time fact-checking and focusing on details such as clarity, enunciation, tempo and then – on lights, sound and editing, the skill that I am still mastering. Often, I simply don’t have time to make a video that meets my own standards. In addition to that, last year was full of events both on professional and personal levels and I had some gaps in my production.
First, I realized that I need to get some clout in the area of conditioning, and I pursued the certification via National Strength and Conditioning Association. It took a lot of effort to master the textbook, to take some courses, to study exercise techniques for all kinds of sports and to do my own research to pass the test… and I passed it, I’m a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist now (there will be 2-3 videos on it soon).
Another reason was a change in my professional practice – I upgraded my professional standing on several levels, moved to another position in a new hospital and somehow managed to become an Associate Professor not at one, but at two universities, which was a huge achievement on its own. Having said that, all these events took precedence over my YouTube work. In addition to that, I have obligations to my patients, to my hospital, my staff and in many cases it means that I don’t have time to focus on making videos.
I also believe that the best way to promote the principles of health I must practice what I preach – I should lead by example and I test certain things on myself prior to presenting them to you. Since my move to the new practice I had to find a new gym, establish new workout routine and to find a very fine balance between my professional activities, my research and studies and producing content. Having said that, in the past year I’ve learnt a lot of lessons and gathered a lot of material to present – at the moment of writing this blog I already have a good master plan with at least 15 videos to make, so stay tuned and subscribe to my channel and to this website.
Finally, it’s Thanksgiving in Canada, so I would like to wish you a great holiday weekend and of course – to give kudos to all people around me who inspire me to continue working and of course to all my viewers and subscribers for making their contributions, their interest and support.
Happy Thanksgiving
Sincerely Yours,
Dr.Sam
The great channels I referred to:
1. Dr.Devos, The Lifting Dermatologist
2. Alan Roberts, Every Damn Day Fitness #EVERYDAMNDAY