· Jess · 3 min read
The YouTube Video That Took Me One Year to Finish
Despite setbacks, "Between Two Berms" finally emerges a year later, a testament to getting out of my own way and just putting it out there.
Why it took me 1 year to finish The first Between Two Berms YouTube video
Rewind. 2 years ago. I hired a designer (the fantastic Tyler Johnson @tylerbjohns) to help me bring an idea to life that I’d been sitting on since 2018.
The idea was Dirt Scouts. A content hub that would feature fun video segments such as Get Over It, Trackstand Trivia AND Between Two Berms: where I’d interview people in the industry and poke a bit of fun.
I’ve had the idea the Between Two Berms idea for a while and even had Tyler build some fun screens as inspo.
Check it: 
The day came where we filmed our first interview at Coler MTB Preserve in May of 2023 with Rich Drew as our first guest.
Needless to say, it was SUPER fun to film and interview Rich. My friends Mason, Devon and Anderson (of Benton Drones) helped us film. Everything went smoothly.
I couldn’t wait to get home and watch the footage. I could see it all coming together. Finally the vision I had for this interview series was going to happen.
I began editing the video in June and that’s about the time Crankworx released an interview with Cam McCaul also called “Between Two Berms”.
Granted, we didn’t invent this format. It’s a take on Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns, but I felt a bit defeated and mad at myself for not getting our B2B interview out there sooner.
I didn’t want to seem like I was taking someone else’s idea.
So I stopped editing. I gave up.
Occasionally, I’d look at the files in the timeline of my editing software…and get mad at myself.
I kept coming back to it. A part of me didn’t want to give up. After some time, I built up the courage to open the timeline again. And start editing. I realized:
Just because we weren’t first… doesn’t mean we can’t do it better.
Sure, Crankworx may have beat us to the punch, but I knew that our interview is pretty fun and entertaining.
I got back to work. Finished the edit. And hit publish. ONE YEAR LATER.
One of my favorite books, Steal Like an Artist, reminded me:
Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.
If we’re free from the burden of trying to be completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing, and we can embrace influence instead of running away from it.
— Austin Kleon
We hope you enjoyed it and I promise this next one won’t take me a year to finish.
