What if you don't go all in?
What I learned about building a sustainable creative practise from a successful YouTuber & hyperpolyglot
A few years ago I really wanted to start a YouTube channel. I made a few test videos, spent hours figuring out lighting and audio, learning editing, and then... stopped. The sheer volume of work behind every single video broke me before I really started.
So whenever I meet someone running a great channel sustainably and actually enjoying it, I need to understand how they’re doing it. This week, that person was Laura from CouchPolyglot.
Laura has learnt 7+ languages and shares her learning process on YouTube to 44k subscribers. She’s acquired brand deals and built up a Patreon community that support her financially. Crucially, she’s still deliberately kept her day job at 80% to maintain balance. She could probably go full-time with content creation but she’s chosen not to.
Her approach completely contradicts the “go big or go home” mentality you see online. Laura has built something sustainable that serves people without burning out or risking financial stability.
So here are a few questions you may want to ask for your own work based on my chat with Laura. If you’d rather jump straight into the full episode, check it out here.
What can I actually control right now?
When the pandemic hit, Laura felt powerless. Her job changed overnight, she couldn’t see friends or family, everything felt uncertain. So she focused on the one thing she could control: creating something she was passionate about.
“I felt like I needed a project that I was passionate about and that would keep me sane,” she told me. “So I woke up one day and I said, I’m going to start a YouTube channel.”
She didn’t wait for perfect conditions. She just started with what she could control.
Your version of this might not be a YouTube channel. But there’s probably something you keep saying you’ll do “when things settle down” or “when I have more time.” What if you didn’t wait? What’s the smallest version you could start with today?
Am I creating for ten thousand, or for ten?
Laura’s original thinking was simple: as a one-to-one Italki tutor, her teachings disappeared after each session. But if she made a YouTube video, ten times as many people might benefit from that lesson forever.
She wasn’t dreaming about thousands of followers. She just wanted to help a couple more people with the same amount of effort. The bar was low, the goal still felt meaningful, and she had a really clear picture about the people she was able to help.
When you think about your creative work, are you obsessing over scale and reach? Or are you focused on genuinely impacting specific people? One approach leads to stress, the other to sustainability.
What would “good enough” look like?
Laura’s early videos had terrible video and audio quality. She didn’t have fancy equipment or editing skills. People still found them helpful and left encouraging comments. Looking back, she’s grateful she didn’t wait for perfect conditions.
This hits close to home: I’m constantly battling perfectionism with my work (hence the name). Laura’s reminder that “something imperfectly done is better than not doing it” is exactly what I need to hear on repeat.
What’s your version of ‘good enough’? Not your ideal. Not what an algorithm wants. What would be genuinely useful to someone, even if it’s messy?
What boundaries am I willing to protect?
Laura is intentionally NOT trying to maximise her YouTube “success”. She could probably go full-time, create courses, build a bigger business, make more money, but she’s chosen not to.
“I’ve met throughout the years, a couple of very stressed out creators who did this full time. And I always knew that I didn’t want to be that person.”
She has found her sweet spot: 4 days a week at the day job, content creation and language learning on the side. When she’s overwhelmed, she publishes less. Wellbeing always comes first.
She’s also still supporting her creative habit through brand deals and Patreon supporters, which is proof you don’t have to go all-in to make something financially viable. It’s about finding your right lever-combination.
What would this look like if I don’t go all-in?
Laura built exactly what she wanted: a sustainable creative project that helps people, brings in some income, and doesn’t dominate her life. She’s proven you don’t have to choose between meaningful creative work and personal stability.
The goal doesn’t have to be to build the biggest thing possible. It can be to build the thing that’s right for you, for your life, and for the people you want to help. I think it’s worth asking: What would your work look like if you weren’t trying to maximize it?
I’d love to hear what you thought of this week’s format. I’m also planning to add a community spotlight section to future posts, so if you’re working on a creative project, making art, or building something on the side, hit reply and get featured here! - Mike