Building a Digital Content Business with AI—Behind the Scenes
Why “The Factory”?
In today’s digital landscape, understanding AI is crucial for content creators.
This series started with the title “Behind the Scenes,” focusing on what happened during episode production. Then I shifted to “Inside the Sausage Factory” before settling on the simpler “The Factory.” Each post will cover either the behind-the-scenes story of that week’s YouTube video or the challenges of building a new company from scratch.
AI and Automation—A Blessing and a Curse in Digital Content
YouTube represents just one piece of the puzzle. The real challenges include selecting the right tools, perfecting AI-generated images and B-roll footage, and adapting when those tools constantly evolve beneath you. Operating on the bleeding edge can be thrilling, but pushing well past that edge while launching a company isn’t always wise—yet here I am. What began as an idea and plan at the start of the year became a full launch timeline of less than thirty days, requiring far more work than anticipated.
What’s Actually Hard? (And What Isn’t)
The goals I set are challenging because I prefer completing everything several weeks before publication deadlines. With less than three weeks until launch, I have all of July’s scripts written, finalized, and converted to AI vocalizations, but I’m struggling with B-roll generation and editing the premiere video. The only reason the vocalizations are complete is because editing the first video became so frustrating that I needed to show myself progress by generating all the voice work to stay on schedule. I assumed script writing would be the most difficult part. I was wrong.
Behind Every Video: Frustration, Bloopers, and Breakthroughs
When you listen to the videos, you may notice slightly different voices or tones. This occurs because the AI vocalization tool’s new emotion mode is still in alpha testing. Each script required hours to generate, with voices that rarely stayed consistent, often producing strange pronunciations, cutting off words, or adding bizarre sound effects. B-roll generation proved equally entertaining. I frequently regenerated videos multiple times to achieve something usable. The AI-generated bloopers were so amusing that I decided to include blooper reels at the end of some YouTube videos.
Juggling Hats: The Reality of Building a Business
Meanwhile, I’m simultaneously building the website, managing bookkeeping, and handling standard business operations. Whenever random ideas strike, I add them to my idea pile for future videos. Don’t believe anyone who claims running a business is easy. For me, it means twelve to fourteen hours daily, seven days a week of intensive work. Strangely, despite how this sounds, it’s been the most enjoyable experience I’ve had in years.
What’s Next? (And Your Input)
Now I’m wondering if I should rename the series “A Peek Behind the Curtain.” I’m curious what this will actually be called when I finally publish it. What would you call this series? Drop your ideas in the comments, or reply to the newsletter if you’re following along. Either way, thanks for joining me on the ride—warts and all.
