Q1) What gets you out of bed in the morning (and why)?
I love to have a purpose, I always want to enjoy my life and I think about how I can take steps to make life more of what I enjoy. I’ve been self employed for decades and have never had anyone to organise my day for me, so the responsibility is on me to do something positive for myself or it won’t happen. Don’t get me wrong I have some mornings where I simply hit a brick wall, doesn’t everyone. I accept those days as a write off, maybe even a whole week can be a write off. But I’ll soon start filling the pipeline with fresh purpose.
Q2) Do you have any habits or routines you follow …and what benefit do these bring for you?
I like to have a video project filmed during the week, I will begin editing it on Monday and hit it really hard on Tuesday. If it is not complete by that time I will spend the rest of the week working on finishing it in any spare time that I have, but will not film anything else during this time. The reason I dont film more is that I am cautious not to overload myself with content creation. I want to do what I enjoy. If I burden myself with content that I don’t have time to make, the enjoyment quickly disappears. I feel for creators that post twice a week, or even daily. I have no idea how they do it and I just hope they are OK.
Q3) Are there any quotes or mantras that you love &/or live by…and why?
‘You gotta just hit record’ This is the mantra of a youtube channel called Think Media. But it resonates with me because I know it's the route to success. You need to know that you will never make the perfect video, you can overthink it and literally never press record. Worrying about what others think of you and worrying about saying the wrong thing can paralyse some incredibly talented people into never sharing their passions with the world. Everytime I make a video I see mistakes in it, but that is the most valuable lesson any creator will be lucky enough to learn. It’s not something to stress about it’s a huge positive because the next video is going to be so much better and just think how good it will be in ten videos time. Even better again.
Q4) Is there a specific skillset or personal attribute you have that you can say has contributed to your own success to date?
I’m not a dreamer, I don’t believe in manifesting success. In my head I just choose to accomplish something and it’s completely achievable. I suppose you could say I’m a bit single minded. That mindset is probably what helps me to learn skills, for instance when it comes to making video I set myself a goal: Everytime I make a video I need to learn a new editing technique. Many videos later I’ve gained a broad range of editing skills.
Q5) Are you currently learning any new skills or working on improving anything about yourself and why?
Absolutely, podcasting is my new venture. It’s a different type of content creation. Now I have two or three cameras and microphones as the podcast is on youtube and spotify/apple etc.. So I am learning about composition and delivering a good interview. My role has switched from barber educator to podcast host, you would think that is simple but it takes quite a bit of preparation. I never realised that news anchors were referred to as anchors because they barely move on screen. Let me tell you that might seem straightforward, but you try conversing without moving. So if I can iron out ‘ums’ ‘ahs’ and moving, my second life as an editor will be a heck of a lot easier.
Q6) Looking back – can you pick out any achievement to date that you are the proudest of and why?
My proudest achievement came in February this year. A few years ago my son would laugh and joke with me about the silver plaque on youtube. The silver plaque is awarded to channels when they reach 100k subscribers. It is a hard thing to get and it wasn’t even on my radar. I was so far away from it that I never even considered it as a possibility, I felt like the rate I was going I would get it in 10 years. In the end it took just under 3 years to get there. As a creator that is my proudest achievement. Even if I get to 1 million subscribers, and pick up the gold plaque, the silver will still be my favourite.
Q7) Again, looking back, have you experienced adversity (or faced discrimination/prejudice) in your life and how has that shaped who you are today?
I’ve had plenty of setbacks, I’ve lost a couple of businesses, one due to the covid lockdowns, the other because I was inexperienced. Both of those situations came with painful financial losses. I also suffered a serious arm injury early in my career, one of the features of the injury was that my hand was paralysed for six months. I barely got by on the 60 pounds per week sick pay during that time. It made me appreciate how hard it is for people who are permanently disabled. You don’t realise how important it is to have two hands until you only have one. In terms of discrimination I do get abusive comments every now and then on my youtube channel. I just hide them from my channel and no one ever sees them again. But I don’t have any animosity towards anyone giving abuse, they probably have something going on that makes them like that.
Q8) What is one key piece of advice you would pass onto someone/ to your younger self and why? or have you ever been given a piece of advice that has served you well?
No one will gift you your dream. If you don’t do something about it, then it will never happen.
Q9) Looking at the arts, are there any specific films, songs, pieces of art, plays, books or podcasts that you have enjoyed/resonate with you, that you in turn, would recommend?
Yes. If you are looking to build a youtube channel then I would highly recommend Think Media and Nick Nimmin. I like Robert Kiyosaki books, he wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad. I listen to a broad range of podcasts, Simon Jordan always seems to have really interesting guests and tough questions.
Q10) Bucket list / Travel. Can you recall your best holiday & what made it so? I.e. Is there anything/anywhere you have experienced that you highly recommend and anything/anywhere on your list you have still to do/go and visit?
Last year with my partner Kelly, and we have three kids between us. We went to a beautiful place in Tenerife. It was the first time we had been anywhere for a long time because of covid restrictions. As a business owner the covid years were pretty rough so to go out there after a couple of tough years and really just relax, it hit harder than any other relaxing I've had before. Travelling is a great motivator for me, I travel any chance I can get.
Q11) Your last supper. What dish are you eating (and why?)? & who are having it with (and why)? (Other than your immediate family, can be a person dead or alive or a fictional character)
Tandoori Chicken. I love Indian food. It would have been cool to sit down for dinner with Muhammad Ali. I am a big boxing fan but I always admired him as a person, he stood up for what he believed in against tremendous amounts of hate and abuse.
Q12) What is your own definition of success / Your own vision of happiness / What’s your NorthStar?
Freedom to do what you want in life. I value time so highly. When I am in a place where I can use my time in any way that I want, I believe that is success.
Bonus Question) If I was to ask you, what you thought the meaning of life was to you? A big question I know, as it stands today – what would your answer be?
I think this takes a lifetime to find out. I would love to know the meaning of life but I am happy to not know. If one day it’s all revealed to us I want to be there, but until then let’s enjoy life.
Biography:
Michael Holm is an Aberdeen based barber who has diversified into YouTube, having amassed 200,000 subscribers from all corners of the globe. His content has been viewed over 27 million times by industry peers, students and many outside the industry. He has recently embarked on mixed interest podcast ‘The Journey Holm’, which delves into the lives of people from all walks of life.