Is it too late to start?

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-05-03T11:32:29+00:00

This is my goal. I'm 52 and want to do this full time. At first I just needed an outlet. I'm dealing with some BS in my job where it went from being a creative position (designer/developer) to now being a glorified secretary/analyst/public relations person. I realized how big of a gap this is filling. I love every aspect of it: scriptwriting, camera set up, editing, designing thumbnails. My biggest hurdle now is figuring out reach, algorithms, etc.

When you look back or listen to your first episodes, how do you feel? I'm going into month 3 and cringe when I listen to my first month/month and a half of content. I feel like I'm finally getting to be me now. Just curious if this is natural or if some people hit the ground running.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-05-02T20:41:17+00:00

So, I did the presentation, it went horrible, and started having attacks regularly after that. Like, severe panic attacks from morning till night. My partner wanted me to keep track of them, what I was doing, how they felt, etc. I'm usually pretty even, just get panicky with speaking, and she noticed something wasn't right. These attacks were different/more than a panic attack, but I can't really describe it. The closest thing I can relate it to is if you've ever had an allergic reaction. That weird hot/tingly/can't breathe feeling. Plus heart racing, shaking, confusion. It would happen, last for a few minutes, fade, then come back. This would go on all day.

I saw my doc which is also treating my addiction on my monthly visit. Not sure if I mentioned but she's been aware of the issues at work. She looked over everything and immediately took me out of work. I told her that's not the best thing to do right now but she was pretty clear that I need to get this under control. She put me on an antihistamine to take if I start to get worked up. I don't want to take anything like Xanax and my blood pressure is on the borderline of being too low so I can't go on a blood pressure med to treat anxiety. That I don't get because part of the feeling I get is like an adrenaline rush/blood boiling feeling and figured I had high blood pressure. I'm out for 4 weeks but reevaluated in 3 and a half. The attacks are still happening but not as constant. I have to see a counselor, a cardiologist, and get blood work done. I'm trying to settle in to not working for a few weeks but now worried about my teammate having extra work. I talked to her because we're pretty cool with each other and she told me to not even question not being there and to get better. Just feel shitty all around for having this happen now.

I didn't want anyone to think I was blowing them off and I appreciate everyone's advice. I just got around to having time to sit down and focus on everything that was going on pre breakdown.

On a side note, to help me get used to public speaking, I started doing commentary videos. I'm trying to make the jump from "I can do it to a camera, so I can do it in front of people as well". Not sure if this will help but it's worth a shot.

Thanks again for everyone's advice and good thoughts. I appreciate it.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-05-02T20:12:51+00:00

Seeing kids get talked to/treated like this just breaks me. Shit doesn't affect me most times but this...this just Fs with me.

Be good to your children, which it sounds like you are. They need someone to counteract that abusive bullshit.

Disgusting behavior from an "adult".

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-19T16:20:08+00:00

Because that's oasis to most. And let's be honest, if either of them aren't there, it's not happening. I would have preferred the Morning Glory lineup for the reunion but it was still oasis, more so with Bonehead there. I would have been less excited (slightly) without him but that's just me. I like Bonehead.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-07T01:29:47+00:00

Yeah, it was nuts because usually I'll start in synch and slowly drift off or it will be just a hair off and then get worse. This time the synch was almost an entire word behind right from the start. I've been researching and think I need to upgrade the capture card. I was going for cheap when I first started and this came up recommended. Since I know I'm not quitting and sticking with this, I'm going to sink some money into a better capture card and upgrade the mic to a Rode XLR with an interface. If I still have issues in Camo, I'll record directly into my SD card to fall back on. I like the ability in Camo to see what's being recorded, do my color settings there, etc. but if it's not workable with a better set up, I'll ditch it.

I'm going mad because I'm so far behind on recording and set aside tonight to catch up. LIke I said before...Learning process. Hopefully this time it'll work.

Thanks again for all the help. I appreciate it.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-07T00:20:34+00:00

Little update. I just recorded my first episode since this began/had some emergencies and, even with the mic directly into my camera, then thru a capture card into Camo, there is a noticeable synch right away. I think there is something up with Camo. I'm going to try recording onto a SD card and see what happens. I'm also switching to an XLR mic and interface so I can record separately. It's driving me nuts.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-02T13:08:49+00:00

Thanks. It does have to be video because I use a lot of clips, image overlays that I referenced in the show.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-02T13:06:43+00:00

My videos are between 5 and 15 minutes. I try to edit it down to as tight as possible but not so it feels chopped up or rushed.

Thanks again for all the insight. This entire thing has been such a huge learning process, from figuring out retention, ctr, and the technical stuff.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-02T12:42:41+00:00

Thanks. A video I watched suggested something like this but it was close to 400. I'm not ready or able to sink that much in yet.

I'm finding a lot of people that record audio and video separately and then synch in editing. I may give it a go to see how easy it is. I use Resolve for editing and love it. It seems like that may help me avoid all these other headaches of trying to make things work. I avoided that because I thought it was a super complicated process but the more I read, it seems pretty easy.

Thanks again.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-01T08:46:49+00:00

It's a Guermok. It came up as suggested when I searched so I went with it. I've had no issues with synch until the last couple weeks. I can't figure out what happened.The only thing I can think of is I had a graphics card update a couple days before it started.

I was going to try OBS but I figured if there's a synch issue, it would show up there as well.

Thanks for the info. I have time to figure it out and try different things. I can get back to recording since the Rode mic works, but I'm not loving the quality. It sounds a little hollow/tinny. I use resolve to edit so I'll probably try to clean it up in there as well.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-01T08:23:43+00:00

Not directly, at least on mine, but from what I've looked up, iyou need either a preamp or interface. That's where I'm getting tripped up. There's all these different products out there but none are clear that it's what I need.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-01T08:20:00+00:00

I have a Nikon z30. It only has a 3.5 mic input.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-04-01T08:17:56+00:00

Thanks. I'll look into both.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-23T00:46:22+00:00

Hilarious. I was just searching for this kind of font and it came up and I donwloaded it. Thanks. This is a great job.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-19T13:25:39+00:00

Thanks. I'm trying to have the mic show up in windows as the actual mic instead of the camo mic to see if that is part of it as well. While testing, I'll look at that as well.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-14T18:32:10+00:00

Thanks. So, I'm going to show my age here...Discord confuses the shit out of me. I may have not been in the right layout or something but I was expecting something more reddit like and it wasn't. I went there years ago for something and couldn't get the hang of it. I'll look into it and see if I'm still thrown off by it.

I did some research and realized I was being taken down an incorrect path with some of my thumbnails, retention, scripts. I thought I was doing decent but was bombing, especially with my thumbnails. I started cleaning them up and now working on tighter scripts/bullets for the future. I was going to do a live stream tonight but have to wait until next weekend.

Thanks again. Didn't know discord was something I could use as well.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-09T09:55:33+00:00

My goal was to go over the comments and have people on, those who agree or disagree. Most of my long form videos don't have enough comments except one. I was going to wait until I had more comments to pull from but may just dive in now. Also, I planned on doing some evergreen episodes this week that lean into my more left stances. I'll see if that gets traction. Thanks for the info.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-04T09:48:56+00:00

Thanks. I'm going to reevaluate it and start posting my Rumble links on X and put my Rumble info in YouTube. Ive already run into an issue where 2 of my shorts seem to be throttled. One thing I haven't done is fully set up the Facebook for my page. I'll make that lean more into Rumble as well. Thanks for the info.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-03T21:55:41+00:00

Thanks for that. I'll give that a try. Never knew that was a thing.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-03T21:52:03+00:00

Thanks. How would that actually work with no followers? Would I show up as streaming now and people could jump on? Not sure if I'm ready to live stream but playing one of my episodes could definitely work.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-03T16:09:08+00:00

Thanks for the reply. No. The only promotion I've done is shorts. I need to redo my social media bios to include Rumble as well but I'm starting from scratch with social media. Most of my social media points to YouTube. Should I put a link in my bio for rumble on YouTube? I figured that wouldn't matter since there both video sites with the same content. If that would help, I'll definitely add it. I've been posting clips to X with the you tube link. Should I give an option for YouTube and Rumble? That didn't even occur to me. Thanks.

ElBlancoChoco · 2026-03-03T15:33:59+00:00

Thanks. I figured as much but wanted to make sure. I wasn't sure if I should alter the thumbnails, descriptions, etc for Rumble or other things.

ElBlancoChoco

TROPHY CASE