Whaddup family!?
Happy August. Wow, what a month July was.
Last you heard from me, I was two weeks removed from being laid off from my job. Not gonna lie — there was a bit of hesitation. What was my next step? Was I going to mess it up? What should I do? What is the Lord guiding me towards? Should I find another job? Or should I try to work for myself again?
I had a lot to wrestle with and it was my #1 priority for prayer while on my morning walks.
Fast forward to today: I fully committed to stepping back into entrepreneurship and was able to fully replace my full time income through my own business.
Holy flippin cow.
Not only that, but I finally got a video shipped that I’ve sat on for way too long — and it is the highest performing video of the year (for now).
I’m riding pretty high, but my favorite part about this past month is that in sharing my story… I can’t do it without talking about how the Lord has cleared the path before me. From random DMs from strangers asking to work with me, to the easiest “yes’s” I’ve ever had in selling my services — it’s way too obvious to be anything of my own doing.
I’m so grateful.
Behind the Scenes
One of the most fun things I did this month was invite out some subscribers of the channel — Jakob and Abby — to come help me film an upcoming video at Hollywood Studios.
It was awesome getting to meet them in person and having someone there to help me capture what I needed. I learned so much about them personally, what they enjoyed about the channel, and we shared a lot of laughs about the different hiccups we ran into while filming.
I’ve also been able to run into a few other subscribers at the parks or at the local Shake Shack. It’s honestly been super humbling and inspiring at the same time. Proof that what I’m building is working.
Another fun thing I got to do recently was host my church’s staff award show. I got to put on a tuxedo from Temu and deliver an absolutely hilarious script to a room of people who do so much for the Orlando community as a whole. One of the highlights of my year.
I also got new business cards — they’re matchboxes. I’ve literally never thrown away a branded matchbox and I love the idea of a “utility” business card. They say “For When You Need a Spark” — which I felt really encapsulates a lot of what I do and what I’m wanting my YouTube channel to embody.
Coming Soon
In about a week I’ll be dropping the last video in my “Riding Every Ride” series for the Universal theme parks — the first one entirely edited by my team of editors, with final approvals and involvement from myself.
It’s only possible because of the team I’m building around me. I did the math: my previous turnaround time for a video by myself was about four months. From idea all the way to posting. However, with the addition of my editors and a production manager who is helping me formalize my production process, I’m able to turn around a video in 32 days.
It’s hard to put into words how satisfying and relieving that feels. It has allowed me to totally open up my mind to new ideas and spend even more time actually planning my videos out better — which in turn leads to BETTER videos.
I have a feeling the next 5 videos of mine are going to be the best ones I’ve ever made. I can’t wait for you to see it.
Thank you so much for reading, watching, and supporting me. Every time I see the number of people who are actually reading this newsletter, it really does encourage me to keep going.
Looking forward to seeing how much progress we make in August.
See you soon,
Dino Favara, Jr.