Why Quitting a YouTube Channel Might Be Your Biggest Mistake

Building a YouTube channel is often described as a marathon, not a sprint. But for many creators, this marathon can feel more like running in circles around an algorithm that seems to mock them.

If you've ever thought about quitting your YouTube channel, it might help to remember that most creators give up just before they are about to hit a breakthrough. Don’t make the premature decision of quitting a YouTube channel before understanding how YouTube’s compound interest can lead to long-term success.

One of the harsh realities of YouTube is that most creators quit before they ever see any form of success.

Whether it's due to bad luck, poor content, or simply a lack of patience, many have unrealistic expectations. They see viral videos and assume that success should come easily and quickly, when the opposite is true. Take these numbers for instance:

The struggle isn’t just limited to new creators with even the top channels facing significant failure rates.

Successful YouTube channels operate like investments

Think of your channel as a savings account, with every video you upload acting like a small deposit. Initially, you may not see significant growth, but as you keep feeding your channel quality content, YouTube will start to reward you. This is where the concept of YouTube's “compound interest” comes into play. The more you invest in your channel, the greater the potential payout down the road.

When it comes to the idea of YouTube’s compound interest, think of it in three phases:

The key is to keep showing up, even when the views are low and the engagement seems non-existent. You don’t have to be the most talented or the most charismatic; what matters is your persistence.

, known as MKBHD. In the early days of his channel, his videos were not the best in terms of production quality, yet he kept posting. His tenacity paid off, and he is now a leading figure in the tech space.

The bottom line? It’s not about being perfect. It's about being relentless.

When you adopt a long-term “investment” perspective, each video becomes a stepping stone toward something greater. Instead of fixating on the video that didn’t perform well, focus on what you are building over the next few years. This long-term strategy will help you weather the ups and downs of content creation.

Feeling stuck in the grind is completely normal

, but quitting a YouTube channel during this phase means giving up on future breakthroughs. Remember, even seasoned creators are always learning and evolving, so don’t feel discouraged if you still have a lot to learn yourself.

What many creators miss are the subtle indicators that precede meaningful growth, such as:

1. Shifting focus from numbers to community

When you start thinking more about serving your existing audience than chasing new viewers, you're aligning with YouTube's core algorithm values.

If your 10th video is better than your first, and your 20th better than your 10th, you're building the foundation for eventual success.

Success rarely arrives as one viral explosion—it often appears as small, consistent increases in retention, subscribers, or engagement.

every day you continue to play this YouTube game, you're beating everybody who's quit already.

Moving Beyond YouTube Algorithm Obsession

Impatience kills more YouTube channels than poor content ever could.

 rewards long-term commitment. When you stop worrying about immediate views and start focusing on the value you provide, your channel will begin to grow. This shift in mindset often occurs around the time of monetization. Many creators find that once they achieve the milestone of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, they realize that the focus should be on serving their audience rather than chasing the algorithm.

Remember: Expecting to become an overnight sensation is unrealistic. The obsession with going viral can lead to a gambling mentality where each video is a desperate swing for success. Even if a viral moment happens, it often leaves creators unprepared for sustained growth.

The YouTube journey includes inevitable periods of creative explosion followed by burnout—experienced by creators of all sizes. Before quitting a YouTube channel, recognize that these cycles are normal and that success often arrives just beyond your breaking point.

By treating your channel as a long-term investment, you position yourself to experience the rewards that come to those with the patience to persist when others quit.

Remember, every creator has their unique journey, and yours is just beginning.

You are closer to your YouTube goals than you think

Discover why quitting a YouTube channel too soon could be your biggest mistake and how persistence leads to success.

Are you ready to quit YouTube because you're finding it too stressful to appease the algorithm? What happens when you walk away from your channel to recalibrate - will your channel die?

Creator Burnout is a very real thing, and on this episode of TubeTalk, four YouTubers will be discussing their journey and what happens when its time to take a break. Join vidIQ expert creators Rob Wilson, Dan Carson and I, along with special guest 

Do you play to the algorithm or creativity?

Can you step away from YouTube and what will happen to your channel?

Quality over Quantity: Is one better than the other?

How much do comments and social media negativity play into the creator just wanting to give up?

Want to Know How To Beat Burnout as a Content Creator?

YouTube burnout, or mental burnout of any description, is a very real problem. Learn why 

creators much more susceptible to burnout, and what to do about it

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Don't forget to 

 on your favorite podcast application so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all the 

Black and white portrait of woman with TubeTalk logo on blue background, video podcast concept

If you're a YouTuber that's feeling stressed and is possibly on the verge of quitting, please take a listen to this week's TubeTalk podcast for some great advice.

What to do When You're Feeling Stressed as a YouTuber

Online harassment is an unfortunate but well known problem in digital communities. According to a Pew Research 

, four in 10 Americans have personally experienced some form of unacceptable online behavior, from offensive name-calling to physical threats.

While no one can erase the chance of being harassed online, YouTube is doing everything it can to help creators thrive on its platform. In fact, last month, YouTube did three powerful things to promote online safety: It took a stand against harassment, resurfaced its community guidelines, and called attention to the safety tools available to creators.

Today, we’re following YouTube’s lead. To make sure you succeed as a creator, we’re sharing the platform’s online harassment solutions - specifically the safety tools. We’re going to cover what they are, how to use them, and where to find them when you truly need them.

But first, here's a quick video summarizing everything mentioned below:

The first thing you should know is that there are three ‘protection’ categories when it comes to harassment on YouTube. At the most basic levels, you can:

adjust the privacy settings of your videos

Of course, that’s the super-simplified overview. Dig a bit deeper, and you’ll find that these tools have multiple protection options. Whether you want a harmful video taken down or your comments disabled, you can fully customize your YouTube experience. Let’s take a look at some of the options below:

The most effective way to block harmful users is by tackling those nasty, hurtful comments in your spam folder. Here’s how:

1. Go to your channel’s homepage and click the profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen. From the drop-down menu, select ‘YouTube Studio’.

2. Go to the left-hand navigation bar and click ‘Comments’.

The next thing you’ll see is the ‘Channel Comments’ panel. In this section, select the ‘Likely Spam’ column to display this category of comments. These can often be your most inappropriate comments, so start here when you need to block certain users.

To do this, simply click the ban icon underneath the comment in question. This is known as the ‘hide user from channel’ tool, which prevents users from engaging with your content.

This tool doesn’t ban anyone from your channel officially, but it’s great for blocking unruly members of your audience. For example, if you post a video or live stream to YouTube, hidden users will still have the ability to watch your content. What they won’t be able to do, however, is leave comments on your videos.

If you need a brief overview of how all this works, watch our brief tutorial on how to block users from your channel:

Additionally, you can block someone who has already posted an offensive comment. To do that, keep the ‘Channel Comments’ panel open. Navigate to the ‘Published’ column and click the three circles underneath any comment. This will display the same ‘hide user from channel’ option as before.

Did you know you can automate the comment review process on YouTube? Instead of deleting harmful messages that are already public, you can set up filters to stop negative comments from publishing. Here’s how it works:

2. Go to the left-hand navigation bar and click ‘Settings’.

3. In the settings menu, click ‘Community.’

4. In the ‘Automated Filters’ column, scroll down to the ‘Blocked Words’ section.

In this box, type all the words you’d find offensive or don’t want to see in your comment section. These could be racial slurs, curse words, or lewd, sexual terms that shouldn’t be shared on a public forum. When you have all the words typed out, do a quick skim to make sure each one is separated by a comma, as YouTube requires.

And now, here’s the good news: When a user submits a comment using any of your blocked words, that comment will be held for review instead of publishing instantly.

To access these comments, return to the ‘Channel Comments’ panel mentioned above. Navigate to the ‘Held For Review’ column, and you’ll find a list of questionable comments that may be inappropriate for public display.

Overall, this word-filtering process is extremely helpful. Even still, it won’t stop every instance of harassment on your channel. When rude comments seem to fall through the cracks, take these extra steps to fight back:

These may seem like drastic measures, but don’t be afraid to use them. If someone is negatively impacting you as a creator, things will only worsen if you let it go unchecked.

How to Change Your Video’s Privacy Settings

When it comes to video visibility, there are levels of ‘reach’ that determine who gets to watch and share your content on YouTube. Luckily, you can tweak these settings to make your videos public, unlisted, or private.

, anyone can watch and share it across the web. On YouTube, the video will appear in search results and related video lists.

 videos won’t appear on your channel or in YouTube search results. These videos can only be viewed and shared by people who have a link to that content.

 videos can only be viewed by you (and anyone else you grant permission). Like unlisted videos, they won’t appear on your channel or in YouTube search results.

So, how do you restrict the access people have to your videos, especially when you’re being harassed online? Here’s the rundown:

2. Go to the left-hand navigation bar and click ‘Videos’.

3. Find the video you want to update, then head to the ‘Visibility’ column.

4. From the drop-down menu, select ‘Public’, ‘Unlisted’, or ‘Private’.

If you upload videos about controversial topics, this feature will be invaluable to you. Oftentimes, viewers’ opinions can straddle the line between criticism and outright harassment. When something like that happens, disabling the comment section might not be enough. If you’re being attacked across the web, consider changing a video’s privacy settings to restrict its reach.

How to Request a Video Removal on YouTube

If someone uploads a video of you and you didn't consent to it, the poster may have violated 

. This resource states that creators shouldn’t expose details about someone’s identity online, which can include a person’s:

If this happens to you, reach out to the uploader and ask them to take down the video. If for some reason they don’t agree to do it, you can request to have the video removed. YouTube has a 

 for users who feel like their safety is in jeopardy.

YouTube has an amazing ecosystem of safety tools, but there are additional resources to help you cope with online harassment and bullying. Follow these organizations for more information around online privacy and safety:

YouTube is a wonderful community of creators, but unfortunately, every user doesn’t mean well. Once you feel secure in your own YouTube journey (from a harassment standpoint), keep the platform positive by 

. That one, simple act goes a long way in fighting online harassment.

Person typing on laptop with digital hate speech and negative comments overlay.

If you’ve been harassed online, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. These safety tools from YouTube can help.

How YouTube Can Help You Tackle Harassment and Bullying

Now that summer is ending, we’re officially over the midyear hump and sliding toward the end of 2020. Considering everything that’s been going on – 

, the social isolation, and the financial uncertainty – how are you, as a YouTube creator, doing these days?

We’ve noticed that many of you are still creating on the platform and sharing your interests with the world. We’ve seen your at-home cooking tutorials, which have helped people feed their families during lockdowns. We’ve watched hours of your quarantine fitness videos to make sure we stay healthy outside the gym. 

And perhaps most importantly, we’ve absorbed your positivity during hard times, aiming to shift our perspectives just as you shifted your content to help others.

With that being said, you can’t continue to do for others without checking on yourself first. Creator burnout, especially on YouTube, is a real thing. If you’ve been pushing through stressful situations to upload non-stop, it’s time to take inventory of where you are right now, both mentally and physically.

 CEO Josh Zimmerman spoke to us about the 

 and urged stressed creators to take the time to recalibrate.

vidIQ: Thanks for joining us, Josh. What are some of the things that may be contributing to creator burnout, particularly during COVID-19 and everything else that’s happening in the world right now?

Josh: COVID-19 has really just magnified all the circumstances that would normally lead to 

. All of us have had our routine and normalcy taken away from us (which has been a good thing because it's helping us protect others.) However, that’s forced many of us to blend our work-life balance in a way we’ve never had to before.

For creators, their work-life is already blended. So, a lot of people would assume, well, hey, this is not going to affect them, but it does because of a few things. CPMs are down, brand deals have been off the table, but at the same time, those creators still have expenses that need to be covered. The bigger channels may have a production team or a manager or agent that still needs to be paid. And of course, the need to pay taxes on income earned from YouTube never goes away.

What I’ve been seeing over the past few months is that YouTube views and watch time is up because people have been watching more content, but potential ad revenue has decreased so there’s a huge disparity happening here. Now, for creators to make up that deficit, they’re having to turn out two or three times the amount of content, just to make the money they were getting last year.

This is a hugely stressful position to be in. And when you get stressed, your body releases adrenaline, and there's only so much adrenaline in your body before your adrenals are tapped out. Once that happens, your brain and body go, "Oh, we got to replace this with something." So, it replaces it with cortisol, a chemical that induces fight, flight or freeze, but also blocks neurotransmitters of creativity. It’s a vicious cycle for any creator to find themselves in.

vidIQ: What are the early warning signs of burnout?

Josh: That's a really, really great question. One of the things that is most important when identifying whether you're burnt out is, if you think you are, then you probably are. You need to start letting that cortisol drain out by doing things that help calm and relax you. Perhaps you’ve done that in the past by socializing with friends or going to the gym, but of course, those things have been out of bounds.

I know a huge number of creators are caught on the hamster wheel right now, but I stress that if you keep going and you don't take a month or so off, how's that going to look for you? Taking a break is more than OK, otherwise, it may take you two, three, four, or even five months to fully recover from the stress. What's the worst that can happen if you take a break now.? Would you rather just step back and take care of yourself and work with a coach, or would you rather keep going and suffer and watch your channel spiral?

vidIQ: Being a YouTube creator can be quite a lonely business, can’t it?

Josh: It's one of the most lonely existences because you're often just looking into a camera, editing and uploading all by yourself, and then you do it all over again. Often, the only interaction you have is with people that you don't know. For the most part, subscribers won’t even comment, they’ll just watch then jump straight to another video.

It doesn't mean that you didn't make a difference, but you don't know. So it's very easy to be like, "Oh, I didn't do anything meaningful.” But just because they didn’t leave a comment doesn't mean your content didn't affect them. They had to log into YouTube, they had to see there was a new video, they made the decision to click on it, and perhaps sit through a couple of ads. So, they went through all of these steps just to watch. That is a huge feat in and of itself.

What people need right now is to feel connected to one another at a safe distance. And so, creators of any size have a great opportunity to spread that happiness and joy of their creativity, but they have to take care of themselves first.

vidIQ: What advice would you give to new creators who are just starting out? Perhaps those who were very enthusiastic at the start of the pandemic, and saw an opportunity to control their career and generate revenue from YouTube. But maybe two or three months into it, they're feeling demoralized or demotivated by the effect the pandemic has had on their lives and creativity.

Josh: Stay healthy. Because if you love creating and people like watching your content, you're helping more than you think. And that's the big thing; it doesn't matter how many subscribers you have, and it doesn't matter how many views you have. It only takes one view or one subscriber and suddenly there’s somebody out there in the world who’s connected with what you're saying and what you're doing.

And it's so easy to say, "Oh, only 100 subscribers, or only 100 viewers." That's 100 people! Imagine that amount of people sitting in your living room or bedroom, waiting for what you have to say! Keep going, because those 100 people are watching YOU. They're watching you for a reason because you make them happy. You give them something. And so, I would encourage those creators that are starting out to keep going.

Sometimes it takes years and years to be a success on YouTube, and unfortunately, we have a pandemic that has put a damper on everything. But what you're putting out there is helpful. So, read those comments, and engage with your audience. You’ll be amazed at why they're watching your videos, and that's going to give you the energy to keep going.

vidIQ: What advice would you have for someone who knows a creator who may be struggling right now?

Josh: I would say that the best thing that anybody can do is to reach out and check in with people you care about (whether they are a creator or not) and ask them, "Hey, how are you coping today?” Also, I would highly encourage creators to reach out to each other, and to their communities. The most successful creators are the ones who started to build their community almost from the get-go, so they know they have a section of their audience that now has their backs.

Many thanks to Josh for his insights. You can connect with him via 

Man sitting on blue sofa, looking stressed and overwhelmed, holding head in hand.

We know the last few months have been tough for many online video creators, so we're checking in to see how you're doing.

Hey, YouTube Creators – Are You Doing OK?

If you're a YouTube content creator do you ever stop? Are you always thinking about the next video even before you've stopped thinking about the last one? Do you ever stop thinking about YouTube?

Phew! All this thinking (amongst all the actual YouTubing) can be exhausting.

We are always thinking and analyzing and at some point, we just can't seem to find our flow again. Every video is a struggle to create. The spark is diminishing. This is burnout.

YouTube burnout, mental burnout of any description, is a part of mental awareness that continues to make headlines as our digital worlds become ever more omnipresent.

Even YouTube's biggest star can struggle with 'switching off'?

"I'm taking a break from YouTube next year. I wanted to say it in advance because I made up my mind. I'm tired. I'm feeling very tired. I don't know if you can tell." - Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie)

So on today's episode of TubeTalk let's unpack those questions with someone who provides a sounding board to those who feel the daily pressures of content creation. That man is 

, the first-ever life coach dedicated to creators.

What is the definition of creator burnout

Why the YouTube platform is a breeding ground for burnout

Why are creators much more susceptible to burnout

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

How To Beat Burnout as a Content Creator: Full Transcript

Josh Zimmerman:	Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to be here.

Liron Segev:	Josh, let's talk about beginning Creator Coach, that sounds extremely, extremely specific. Give us the tweetable version. What is Creator Coach? What do you do?

Josh Zimmerman:	Wow. Tweetable version, is that 240 characters? I have a little bit more. Creator Coach is all about helping creators in their life as well as in, specifically burnout and helping them really move from point A to point B and see what's getting in the way.

One of the things that I realized when I had a lot of creators coming to me back in 2017, 2016 about burnout and reading all the articles was that everyone was talking about it and no one was doing anything about it. I didn't see anyone out there really addressing the issue and so I decided I was going to.

Liron Segev:	Okay, well, you hit the nail right on the head right at the get-go, which is burnout. We hear that word constantly. We hear it in the news, on social media feeds, when we speak to fellow creators at events. Let's just define what is burnout.

Josh Zimmerman:	Burnout is starting to become very common in every single circle but we're hearing it more and more with creators of all types. Really what that means, and it means a lot of different things to different people but really the baseline is that you just do not have any more energy or will to move forward with creating content.

Liron Segev:	Do you find these different levels of burnout could be: I'm a little bit burnt out? Can I be a lot burnt out?

Josh Zimmerman: Absolutely. I came up with a burnout timeline, right? There's four stages that we can really identify, which is preventative. That's really like, again, the baseline where you're managing stress and avoiding the symptoms of burnout. The next bucket is onset, right, where the stress and other factors begin to increase pressure and the symptoms of burnout.

Then we really quickly move to what I call the death spiral, which is where you really circum to the pressures that begis to alter the path, and you question directions and encounter more stress. That doesn't stop, because there are no boundaries in a lot of places.

A lot of creators don't have a lot of boundaries because that's what you do, you create. There are no boundaries to your creativity. When things start to spiral out of control, it's really hard to find something to grasp onto.

Once you're down that spiral, the next one is the most unfortunate which is the flat line. If you think of the EKG, you have flat lined and that is you've lost all ability to create due to the numerous and previous factors that I talked about. Burnout is a key factor in the lives of almost every creator.

Everybody is on this timeline somewhere right now. My job is to help them move through those timelines or those different timelines and hopefully bring them to somewhere where they start to notice those symptoms and be able to address those before things start to go downhill quicker.

Liron Segev:	Before we get to the flatline

Liron Segev:	As creators, we're always on, we don't take a break. We're always thinking of the next content. We're thinking of this thing called the algorithm. We're constantly always on this hamster wheel of constantly, constantly being on.

I mean, it's not like you go to work, you do your shift, you go home and then you're done. This creator life almost follows you wherever you go. Are there any specific causes that you know that causes us to start saying, okay, I'm starting to hit the first stage of burnout?

Josh Zimmerman:	Well, what you just said is exactly correct. I would take it a little bit of a step further. What a lot of people don't understand is that being a creator, just like you said, it's not a job where you get to, you know, at five o'clock, six o'clock, seven o'clock you get to turn the lights off and go home.

The thing that people really don't understand outside of the industry and even inside the industry is that you don't turn off, because what you're putting out there, even if it is just a sliver of your life, that's you. That is you are always on.

There is nothing that is sustainable when you are constantly on. You just can't turn it off, especially when it is a part of you that you are putting out into the world at such an intimate level. One of the first things is to be aware of that.

If you're tired and if you start to stress, which this job is extremely stressful, and you start to lose motivation, that's when it's good to take a step back and to say, okay, what's going on? What am I feeling? What is happening that is causing me to not want to do what I normally do or lose enjoyment in that?

Liron Segev:	Right. Well, I think that's an important point. One of the first question I always say is, are you passionate enough about the subject or are you doing it for the views? There's a big distinction between the two.

Because those who love what they do and they can wake up every morning cannot wait to get in front of that camera or cannot wait to write that blog post or post those pictures, those are the people who've got the right mindset coming in and, probably, longevity versus the people who are living to the algorithm. What are people into today? I'll make those videos today. I'm going to try build up my channel based on a trend because then you're on a very fast pace to that burnout.

Josh Zimmerman:	It's an ego thing, right? It makes you feel good. The bigger you get, the more numb you become to them but those numbers do equal your income. I highly encourage everyone to also branch out and diversify your income just in case something turns with the system. I'm using big air quotes, "algorithm."

Liron Segev: Not in case, because it will change.

Josh Zimmerman: It will change. Right. I know someone who went from making $50,000 a month to five overnight. That's going to shake you to your core. Anyone that is chasing views, you know, I haven't really worked with anybody who is... I wouldn't advise anybody to ever start a channel just to chase views.

The people that I work with, and the creators that have huge success are people who are creative at their core and ended up starting on YouTube just because it was an outlet. It wasn't to get famous. If you are out there and you are trying to do that, there's other ways to do that.

Liron Segev:	People do fall victim to those vanity metrics at a point.

Josh Zimmerman:	All the time. 100% and they are corrosive because of the fact that it is these numbers that... Here's the big thing, people forget that those numbers are actual people.

Liron Segev:	Yes, yes, yes, yes. Absolutely.

Josh Zimmerman: Right? When you take a step back or you lean in and you look at, you know, somebody says, I only got 40,000 views on this video. I go, okay, well, do you know how many people Madison Square Garden holds? They'd be 50, 60, 70,000. I said, try 24. I believe 24, 25,000 people.

I go, how long did it take you to get those 30,000 views? Well, it took me a day or two. You're up there at the top of selling out Madison Square Garden. You've surpassed most celebrities that have events at Madison Square Garden.

Liron Segev: Completely, on that point, on the subscriber numbers as well. I often see in our chats where people say, I only have 300 subscribers. I only have a thousand subscribers. I say to them, great, if a thousand people were coming for dinner tonight, is that a lot or a little?

When you start making it real and we tell them that when we speak on stages in front of a thousand people is considered a big stage, it becomes real because those are eyeballs. Those belong to people. It's not a number, it's a person.

Josh Zimmerman:	Right. That's the thing that makes this journey really difficult because a lot of the time when you start to really grow, there is a wall that goes up of everybody wants access to me.

Being a creator can sometimes be pretty lonely because you're just staring into a camera. What people don't understand is on the other side, what we call is breaking the fourth wall, you're looking right into the camera. That person, that viewer, that fan that is watching you is having a one-on-one dialogue with you. You have somebody who is creating content on their own and there's a lot of eyeballs. It's an isolated life.

Then when you go out into the real world, you're bombarded with all these people. That's a shock to the system as well. Going back to your point, what I encourage everybody to do, anyone who says about subscribers, it only takes one. It only takes one.

I can't illustrate that better than, you know, in 2014 I was at YouTube Nation, which was the official daily show of YouTube. When that came to an end and people were, you know, our fans were really upset. I read a comment and I didn't read comments a lot on the videos, but one of them was from this little girl who said, this was a daily show. She said, I don't know what I'm going to do every day when I go to get chemo. That knocked me over.

Josh Zimmerman: I've never forgotten that to this day. That's the power of somebody making a comment or watching you, you as a creator or as a other viewer have no idea how much you are helping people that are watching your content.

Liron Segev:	It's funny how those comments stick with you. There's a person that I interviewed a little while ago, Joe Scott. He's got this amazing science and question channel. His story is very much the same where he made videos and he stopped for a while, and then when he made his new video, he said, I'll never forget it. It was mister electric popsicle, something like that, some username that he knows.

He said, "Where have you been, man? I've been waiting for you." He said from that day onwards he made every single video for that user. That's how he had it in mind because he made that connection because at the end of the day, it's a person watching your content.

Then, once we have that amount of stress on top of us having to deal with brands, and having to deal with monetization and algorithm changes, and thumbnails and titles and, and, and, and, and... that stress becomes ridiculously compounded and compounded and we do not take a break. Is that one of the causes of burnout?

Josh Zimmerman:	Yes, but there's another big piece of it and it's actually chemical related. When you're stressed, adrenaline is released. You only have so much adrenaline in your system. When that happens and you run out of adrenaline, it sort of taps out. It's like we don't have any more and the chemical that replaces it is cortisol.

Cortisol is the chemical that induces fight or flight or freeze. When that happens, blood rushes from your extremities and goes to those core organs that you need to survive. What it also does is it usually goes to the right side of the brain. I mean, it goes all over, but the right side of the brain is the creative side.

The first thing that it does is it kills creativity because that's not something you need to survive. You need to know how to climb a tree if a bear is chasing you. This is what's happening. You get stressed, your adrenals are empty, your cortisol is in there and is literally blocking you.

The chemicals are literally blocking those neurotransmitters from being able to have you create. Now you stress even more because you can't come up with any ideas. More cortisol is released. You can't think of any more ideas. You get more and more frustrated and you start spending so much energy trying to take one step and you're putting even more stuff in front of you that's blocking you from taking that first step.

That's when burnout happens because you have no more energy left because there are actual chemicals in your brain that are stopping you from being creative.

Liron Segev:	Almost becomes that deer in the headlights situation where you just don't know what to do next.

Josh Zimmerman: Because you can't move forward. My job is to help bring those cortisol levels down, help with relaxation which also distresses and flushes that cortisol out, which then allows those neurotransmitters to start sparking again. That's one of the biggest things that people are not aware of is that, and what feeds into all of that is not having boundaries and not having some kind of structure because the creative life, the creator life is really structureless.

Josh Zimmerman: I say that with a big asterisk because you do have, there's different things that you need to do. Listen, when there's a TV show, when there's a movie, anything else in entertainment, there's something called the hiatus. It's when you go on break.

The industry has built that in on the entertainment side, on the traditional side, because you can't be running all the time. If you can, you just need a huge crew to be able to do that. The other piece is that everybody on set knows that they have a specific job and they know what they're supposed to do, and when they're done, and when they get paid.

There is still creativity and there's still burnout in there, but if you are the star of a show, you know you show up to set at 6:00 AM, here are your lines. Hair and makeup is coming in. You can go get some food now. From this time to this is a call sheet. This time you're going to be doing this scene, this scene. It may be a extremely long day that you may burn out and run out of energy, but there's a structure to it. Our industry doesn't have that.

Liron Segev:	At all, and especially since a lot of us are... You know, we're rowing our own boat in the sea of YouTube and it's a lonely world. In front of the camera, usually from a little home studio, a little home office, sometimes even in the bedroom. There really isn't a separation of church and state. There isn't a separation of here's my work. I'm now physically leaving to go to my personal life.

Josh Zimmerman: Correct. You're operating in a vacuum. My job is to snap both of those ends of that... If you think of a vacuum, like a little glass tube and you're in there, my job was to snap both ends and to bring some oxygen in there for you to be able to look around and realize that there are things going on that you didn't even know were happening.

We can all talk about it with each other but until we get to the bottom of it and actually move into it and figure out what's going on, nothing's going to happen to move forward.

Liron Segev: Okay. Are there any warning signs that I should be looking out for to say, whoa, it's time to get off for a little bit. Take a little bit of a break?

Josh Zimmerman: It really is, and there is a worry of, well, I have to put this out. I have to get this out. As soon as, and that's normal but as soon as you start to lose that spark. You start to feel that candle light starting to dim a little bit, that's when red flags should be going off.

Everyone knows when that's happening. It's just whether you choose to be aware of it or not. Those signs are not wanting to upload, stressed, always being sick, not feeling motivated, not enjoying what you're doing. It's not that hard to figure it out, but it's really hard to do yourself.

*Liron Segev: Well, if I do want to take a break, how will my audience react? How will the algorithm react? Can I rebound from that? You get horror stories of people taking a break and never been able to rebound. On the other side, you hear people saying, I've took a three week break and it was the best thing I could ever have done for myself. Is burnout almost inevitable for everyone at some stage? *

Josh Zimmerman: Yes. Yes. All of those factors that you just talked about that you are experiencing are all little warning signs to examine it because none of those have boundaries on them.

Liron Segev:	The highs and the lows are quick. You're going to have an amazing video, it's going to get great reviews, lots of comments, lots of subscribers, lots of engagement. You're so pumped.

*You're going to make your next one. If the next one doesn't perform, you say, okay, maybe it's a glitch. Maybe it's the algorithm. Make another one. If that one, God forbid, tanks, this is it, I'm giving up. *

I don't know what I'm doing. Is the highs and lows that steep, which is maybe pushing a lot of us? Do you watch those metrics so carefully?*__

Josh Zimmerman: Yeah, because they're reflection on you.

Liron Segev: Okay. I like it. I think too many people, too many creators don't see themselves as a brand. They see themselves personally as a person all the time.

Josh Zimmerman: Which they should, and it's totally understandable, but there needs to be some perspective. You need to be talking to somebody that says, wait a second. What's really going on here? Some people don't want to admit it, and some people... That may not be the case.

Again, the reason I love what I do is that there is no right answer to every single question because everyone is individual. Just like every channel is individual because it's coming from a somebody. They are an individual. The solutions are really tailored to that person.

The most important thing though is that everybody, every single creator that I've ever talked to, I really don't like using the word creator even though that's... It feels like we're looking at a zoo. Every single person that is in the YouTube or digital world feels like they are the only ones that have this problem.

PewDiePie recently announced he is taking a break from YouTube because he is, "feeling very tired". Are you? On this week's episode of TubeTalk, we explore mental health around content creation, the dangerous of burnout and how to avoid it.

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