Kat Kuan

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Yoga with Adriene: 30-Day At-Home Yoga Challenge

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I highly recommend Yoga with Adriene! Her channel on YouTube has 6M subscribers (wowza) and that’s because she has so many great yoga videos!

I first heard about her through my friend Jodie last January (2019) when Adriene was doing her 30-day yoga series to start off the year. I did a couple days and then fell off the bandwagon.

This year (2020), she is releasing a new 30-day yoga series to start the year. I started a little late, but I’ve been doing it every day for almost a week since.

Her voice is so soothing, and she incorporates pausing to reflect and look inwards throughout the practice. She has a gentle approach and encourages you to do the best you can, even just showing up is enough.

Her sessions are about 20 – 40 mins long. Great for busy people! I find that doing it in the morning is the best and calmest time for me to enjoy it. I leave feeling refreshed and feeling good in my body – that I treated it well that day!

Try it out for yourself here:

30-Day Yoga Journey Playlist

If you only have time for one video, try Day 2 – Intend.

She also has a dog Benji, who lies down in the background or walks in and out of the shot lol. Cute!

Cheers to a happy and healthy new year, everyone!

How To Make YouTube Videos

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I started my YouTube channel Kat Kuan back in 2017 and have uploaded 49 videos and racked up over 31k views since then. If you’re curious about how I make my videos, read on!

1. I usually start with the topic of the video – whether it will be a vlog, a story I’m trying to tell (i.e. a style transformation), or an educational topic like a style tip or some career advice.

2. Then I shoot the footage. I typically use my Canon vlogging camera with the flip screen so I can see myself (and make sure my head is not cut off!). For the equipment I use, refer to this earlier blogpost.

I grab as much footage as I need because I won’t be able to go back for it. So I may do an extra take to make sure I have the right ending, beginning, etc..

Another option is to use the camera on my phone to film and tilt it horizontally. (You could leave it in portrait mode if you want to film for IGTV.)

3. I also try to remember to take a photo for the YouTube thumbnail picture. A custom thumbnail picture makes the video more attractive for clicking on. Example:

Took this picture
Created this YouTube thumbnail graphic

4. After the footage has been recorded, I go to my laptop (MacBook Pro) and export the files I recorded from my SD card onto my computer.

5. I browse through the content and remove the outtakes and blurry photos. I’m basically curating a subset of the raw footage that I want to use.

When I’m watching back these videos, I go with my visceral feelings to pick out the most authentic clips. I look for what are the most natural emotions, and usually it’s from the first take. When filming subsequent takes, I start to get in my head and it looks like I’m reciting lines and overthinking the words instead of feeling the words.

6. Then I open up iMovie, create a new project, and then import the raw video and photo files that I want.

iMovie – create a new project

7. I start with laying out the video clips I want. I drag the video files down onto the timeline and put them in the desired order. You can also drag the start / end of the video clips to trim them.

iMovie project

Or you can right click on a spot in the video clip and select “Split clip”. Then you can move each part of the clip independently or delete one of them.

Split a clip in iMovie
This clip was split into two and each one was trimmed for conciseness

8. You can see a preview of your edited video in the top right corner of the iMovie application. Hit play to watch it back.

Within this window, I can also adjust the audio volume in the clip. I may mute the audio completely if it’s a B-roll shot (meaning alternative footage compared to the main footage). For example, if I’m walking up to the restaurant, then I’ll just mute the volume because I’ll add background music later. See the white sound icon with the red line crossed through it.

You can also play with the speed of the video by clicking on the timer icon. Choose Speed as Fast, Normal, Slow, etc.. You can speed it up by 2x, 4x, 8x, etc.. In the below example, I sped it up by 2x.

9. At some point, I usually pick music to go with my video. I pay for a service called Epidemic Sound to get royalty free music for my YouTube videos. This is great for creators because then you can pick from a wide selection of songs and not worry about infringing on copyright issues.

I have their annual subscription, which was about $150 per year but I think the price has slightly increased. These songs are for videos uploaded to YouTube / Facebook / Instagram / podcast, so if you use them for other purposes, you may need to pay a different price per song.

I think this music subscription is worth it if you’re serious about creating videos more frequently. Music adds a fun dimension to your videos.

I choose my songs in a pretty random way. I browse their staff picks, albums, or search keywords. Sometimes I search by genre, category, or even tempo. I like music with a pretty upbeat tempo for YouTube videos because it keeps the viewer engaged.

10. Once I find a couple of songs I like, I download them and import them into my iMovie project. In this below example, I imported 4 songs for this video. Same as with the video clips, I drag the audio clips down onto the timeline underneath the video clips. Drag them left or right or trim them so they line up with your video as desired.

Imported audio files in iMovie
Music lined up with the video clips in iMovie

If you want audio effects like a swoosh or a click or anything, iMovie provides a library of sound effects you can use for free. Click on the “Audio” tab to see and preview them. Drag them onto the timeline and adjust until the timing is correct.

11. Here are some other cool effects. If you are transitioning from one scene to a completely different one, you may want to add a transition like Slide Left or Fade to Black or Cross Blur, among others.

Transitions in iMovie

If you need subtitles to describe who’s talking or what’s going on in the video, you can add text by clicking on the “Titles” tab. There are a bunch of preset options and some are animated. You can change the text and font style.

12. Once you’re done with the video, watch the full thing back to make sure it’s what you expect. Then you can export it to your YouTube channel (or as a standalone video file). At this time you can also add metadata like the title and description of the video.

13. I prefer to wait until the video has been uploaded into YouTube to edit the metadata. You can set the title, description, thumbnail, tags, and more.

Metadata page for a video in YouTube studio

Title – Be sure to include keywords on the video. I also use “|” separators to add more phrases like a subtitle. For search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, a good title will help the video show up more often in users’ search results.

Description – I describe the video and include any relevant links to products / people / places that I mentioned. I also include a standard blurb on how people can connect with me on other social media platforms.

Tags – I try to add as many relevant tags as I can to the video, again for SEO purposes to make the video more discoverable. There’s a limit to the number of tags that YouTube allows per video, so I usually keep adding until I hit that limit.

Tags on a YouTube video

14. As I mentioned earlier, there’s also an option to create a custom thumbnail for the video. The thumbnail is the preview that shows up on YouTube when the video is in a list of other videos, or when you paste the YouTube link in a website or social media post. I like to create a custom one with a clear photo and some text to describe what the video is about.

I create YouTube thumbnails in Canva (see my earlier tutorial post on Canva).

Create YouTube thumbnail in Canva (comes with preset layout ideas)
Example thumbnail I created for this video
Example thumbnail I created for this video

Download the image from Canva after you’ve created it. Then set your custom thumbnail on the metadata page for the video in YouTube studio. Alternatively, you can also choose from random screenshots that YouTube selected from the video as your thumbnail. See the 3 photos on the right.

Set the thumbnail onto the video within YouTube Studio

15. Within the metadata page of the video, you can also select “End Screen” to customize what the end of the video looks like. At the end of YouTube videos, you may have noticed that there will be small thumbnails of suggested videos to watch next. Those can be selected by you and you can arrange the layout of them on the screen too!

At the end of this video, I recommend 2 videos for the viewer to watch next.

Select the “End Screen” button and you’ll be brought to a new page.

Select “Use template…” and choose from the templates. You can have up to 2 suggested videos and select which videos or playlists should appear. You can also show a round thumbnail of your YouTube channel icon, so people can click to subscribe on your channel.

In the above example, I chose to add a button to subscribe to my channel and a video that YouTube determines is best for my viewer at that time. These elements are overlaid onto my existing video for the last seconds of the video. You can choose when those elements appear in your video and for how long, but they must occur at the end of your video.

Because these elements overlap the screen, you want to make sure that it’s not covering any vital information behind it. This is why some YouTubers have “End Screen” graphics that have some space on the side for these elements. Or I’ve inserted extra seconds of a blank black screen into my video so that I can add these elements.

In this case, I added a photo of some succulents as the background while these End Screen elements are shown. This is what the video in iMovie looks like.

Part of the video timeline in iMovie

16. Back to the metadata page of the video in YouTube… Add the video to one of your playlists, if applicable. (I added this video to my Vlogs playlist.)

Then make the video public! Anyone can view it and so that it will show up in YouTube search results / suggested videos.

Set visibility and playlist for the video

Or you can choose to make the video “Unlisted” and only people with the direct link will be able to find the video.

Direct link to the YouTube video

17. As the last sanity check, watch the video one more time to make sure that it uploaded just as you expected it to. Then share with your audience!! Great job on making your first video!!

If you want to see the final product of the video I was making, check it out below.

Here are other types of videos on my channel:

Thanks for reading! And subscribe to my channel for the latest videos!

My Word of the Year for 2019

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I wanted to pick out a word-of-the-year. One thing to focus on for the year. But I couldn’t decide which word to pick!

Top contenders:

  1. Massive action – phrase borrowed from Tony Robbins on how to take charge of your life and achieve your goals.
  2. Focus – self-explanatory, we could all use more focus and less distractions.

However, I realized that “massive action” was not working for me because I kept trying to pile more things onto my plate and keep moving in many directions, making little progress on any one thing.

I also realized that “focus” was too narrow of a word for me. It didn’t excite or motivate me that much. The word made me think of limited options and a smaller focus area. It wasn’t very invigorating to wake up and feel like you must focus for the day. Felt more obligatory for me personally.

But then I was listening to this amazing motivational YouTube video Live Your Dreams over and over again. Then I decided on my word for 2019.

Courage

I believe that the word “courage” will steer me in the right direction at each step of the way during this year. Courage means doing the hard thing. Doing a single hard thing can give you more progress than doing 100 easy things in the wrong directions.

Oftentimes the “hard thing” is the right thing to do, and probably the thing that we fear and dread the most. But that’s when we stand to have the biggest gain both in potential external results but also in who we become as a person.

If I have to measure each day, then I’ll need to ask myself, if I did things that required courage each day. It freaks me out thinking that I’ll need to face a fear each day, but if I don’t, what is at stake? If I don’t face a fear today, if I just stay in my comfort zone, then I’ll likely stay the same. I won’t have grown that day.

Sure, one day without growth is no big deal. But if you multiple that by 7 days in a week, spent hiding and procrastinating from your fears, that’s one week of your life gone by that you didn’t grow. And then a month passes by, and you didn’t grow. You make more excuses about why it’s “safe” to stay where it’s comfortable. And then years pass by, and you’ve settled for even more things and you’ve come up with a laundry list of why it’s too hard to change now. And then life send you a wake-up call that you are ill prepared for because this whole time, you didn’t grow into a stronger, better person. You’re essentially the same person as you were 5 years ago.

The Movie: Revolutionary Road

Another way to think about this sobering thought is illustrated in the movie: Revolutionary Road. (This movie reunited Kate Winslet and Leonardo DioCaprio on the big screen since Titanic. Omg I just had to watch it! It’s available on Amazon Prime if you’re interested.)

It’s about April and Frank Wheeler (played by Kate and Leo respectively), who are a married couple in the 1950s living with 2 young kids in Connecticut. They live in a picture-perfect neighborhood in a picture-perfect house. He goes to an office job, while she stays at home to take care of the house and kids. The problem is that their life is on autopilot. They had ambitions when they were younger (her to be an actress, him to go back to Paris – a city he loved) but then they settled into married suburban life and those dreams got put on the backburner. They get so numb with their life and by staying static, and as the movie unfolds, they actually find that there are consequences. I won’t go into details in case you want to go watch it.

Honestly, it was a depressing movie, but I can’t help but find how truthful it is. Staying still in life is so tempting because it seems safe (it’s what you already know and are familiar with), but it is actually the riskiest option. But we can’t see the consequences until the long term, and by then, it may be too late to change our choices.

Many people are dead now. Many people are allowing their dreams to die. Many people have allowed their ideas to lie dormant and collect dust. Many people have all this talent and ability that they allow to be buried inside of them, that they will take to their graves. Because they didn’t have the courage to be who they are.”

Les Brown

Thoughts on Courage

Courage is hard. There’s so many uncertainties and things to fear and worry about in the world.

Does it mean that valiant people are not afraid? No, it means they experience that fear and they move forward.”

Les Brown

What I’ve been trying to do is feel the fear. To feel the trembling fear when I’m about to do something I’m scared to do. And then to acknowledge it and DECIDE that I will do it anyways. And the quicker I do it, the less painful it will be because I won’t have to agonize over all the worst case scenarios.

Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once.”

Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)

I’m far from perfect, and still very much working on being brave. It’s daunting because just as every day is a new day, every day you’re faced with a choice of whether you will be brave or not. And I hope that for me and you, we both decide to be brave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNgIvxZ4m8U

Disclaimer: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Camera Equipment for YouTube

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I recently uploaded a new video on my YouTube channel that was a vlog of my Napa trip with friends. This was all made possible by new vlogging camera!

Since this is a decent financial investment, I wanted to share my experience.

WHERE TO GO

First of all, if you’re in the Bay Area, I HIGHLY recommend going to Mike’s Camera in Menlo Park. The staff is friendly and very knowledgeable about camera stuff.

The woman who helped me asked about my intention for the camera and showed me different ones accordingly. My main purpose is to vlog, so I held out different cameras at arms length to see how heavy and comfortable they felt. I also wanted a screen to see myself when I talk to the camera, so that was my simple criteria. She showed me one option where you can attach a separate mic to get clearer audio, but that seemed like more hassle.

THE CAMERA I CHOSE

She told me a lot of bloggers use the Canon G7X Mark II. It’s light and the LCD screen flips up so you can see yourself, so ultimately, that’s what I went with.

canon g7x mark ii lcd screen

Mike’s Camera actually has the same prices as you would find online because and price match with any reputable retailer. Another plus was that they threw in some free extras with my camera purchase like a private tutorial, 100 4×6 photo prints, a big print, a metal print, custom photo gift, and a class. I haven’t redeemed them yet, and I think it may have expired. >.< Oops!

Anyhow, if you aren’t in the Bay Area and can’t stop by their store, here’s the online link to the camera I got.


I bought it earlier in the year in January and paid $679.99 for it (same price as Amazon at the time), but it looks like the price has dropped since then.

There’s tons of articles online where vloggers share which camera they use. I just saw this thread on Instagram the other day. I’m not incredibly picky about the specs of the camera, so I was able to decide within 30-45 mins and walk out of there with my new camera.

ACCESSORIES

I also want to add that while I was at the store, I got some other accessories that would be needed to get up and running.

In the future, I wonder if I’ll get a ring light or a taller tripod. I’ve been putting my laptop on an ironing board for my past videos. 😛 However, I want to be careful because it’s easy to get caught up in buying a bunch of high quality equipment that I may not need right away.

At one point, I was thinking about getting the same camera as my favorite YouTubers. But they’ve been doing it for 5+ years, and they slowly built up to that equipment. Since I’m starting off and figuring out whether vlogging is something I want to do long term, I’m happy with what I have now. The key will to keep creating content!

The total for all of this came out to be $840.22 – not bad for a starter kit.

Do you have a nice camera? What do you use and what kind of content do you capture?

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Regardless though, this is my true camera setup.

My YouTube Channel: Writing a Children’s Book

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Hey y’allz! I forgot to update this blog with the fact that I started a YouTube channel! It’s a vlog series documenting my journey to writing a children’s book – which I have wanted to do for SOOO LONG!!

My motivation always went up and down. One day, I was all gung ho about starting it. Then I would get overwhelmed by the fears of all the worst possible outcomes or overwhelmed by all the things I didn’t know how to do (self-publish, illustrate, market a book, etc…). I would get discouraged. I would get distracted easily. Or I would just get plain lazy and go to the mall instead. 😛 Anyhow, it was a nonlinear process to say the least.

About 2 months ago, I FINALLY got the guts to seriously buckle down and work on the book, and by announcing it on YouTube, I feel like it’s going to keep me accountable to keep making forward progress. ONWARDS!

Here are the videos I have so far, Episodes 1 through 4. You can click each one individually or I’ve combined all of the videos into a handy dandy playlist!

If you enjoy these videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel to follow along!

Also, what are some of your favorite YouTube channels? I’d love to find new awesome channels for inspiration! 😀