Meet Cameron Sabin

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cameron Sabin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cameron below.

Cameron, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I attribute a lot of my current confidence and self-esteem to creating videos, actually. I am not a naturally confident person, and to be honest, have struggled with self-esteem issues my entire life. I think a lot of this was down to feeling lost and not feeling like I had found my place in the world yet. But, when I started creating videos on YouTube, I suddenly had a thing that was all mine, so to speak. I made the decisions around what videos to make, how to research them, how to write scripts, and how to edit them. I learned a lot of skills by doing that, and slowly but surely found my creative voice, which translated into real-world confidence. At first, my videos were voiceover only, but I eventually made the decision to appear on camera. I remember that being a scary time in my creative journey because I didn’t know how it would be perceived by my audience at the time. But, it turned out to be the exact right decision, and I couldn’t be happier that I took that risk because it really helped me develop my confidence on camera, but also in real life. On the whole, creating videos has helped me to find my voice, pursue my passions, and create good in the world.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My name is Cameron and I am the creator behind National Park Diaries, an educational YouTube channel dedicated to telling “stories from the world’s protected places.” I cover stories relating to National Parks, public lands, and protected areas from around the world, all with the goal of inspiring real world conservation action. My goal from Day 1 has been to do things a little differently when it comes to National Parks on YouTube. I found a lot of videos focused on how to experience these wonderful places, but relatively few that were purely educational and focused on helping people understand what made them so special and worth visiting in the first place. I figured, hey, with my background and approach to storytelling, I could fill that role! And so, that’s how National Park Diaries came about. To this day, I’ve made nearly 150 videos about National Parks, covering everything from geology and ecology, to natural history and cultural history, to management and administration. I’m fascinated by “peaking under the hood,” when it comes to telling National Park stories on YouTube, covering topics and stories that people might not have heard about, and doing so in a way that is accessible and entertaining.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Believe in yourself. We consume so much content online, but I get the feeling that a lot of people say to themselves, “I could never do that,” or “I could never make that.” Don’t let that little voice in your head tell you you can’t do something. I listened to it for a long time and was deeply unhappy. It was only when I took a risk on myself and really believed in my own creative vision, that I began to feel fulfilled and enriched, both in my creative and personal lives. Making things has never been more accessible, so don’t be afraid to take that chance on yourself.

2. Resilience. Even though making things has become easier, making things can still be extremely difficult. And frustrating, And demoralizing. But don’t give up. Resilience is one of the hardest skills I’ve had to learn as a creator, but it’s easily the most valuable. There will be times when it feels like nothing is going your way, and it’s during those times when you’ll need to lean on your resilience to carry yourself through the rough patch. Building resilience looks different for everyone – I found it through running – just experiment and find what works for you.

3. Authenticity. In an era where trends dominate the internet, don’t be afraid to be yourself and create what’s true to your heart and your passions. People are passionate about what other people are passionate about, and I firmly believe if you’re making something true to yourself, even if it’s a bit different, you’ll find people who appreciate it.

The best advice I can give to folks early in their creative journey is… be patient. We’ve been trained to expect instant gratification, especially on the internet with the possibility of viral success, but for the vast majority of creators, it doesn’t work this way. Take time to hone your craft, learn new skills, find your voice, so that when success does come, you have the experience and foundation to be able to handle it. That’s much more sustainable in the long run anyway.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

True to form for a National Parks creator, when I’m feeling overwhelmed I return to nature. Creating online means you inhabit a world full of stimulus pretty much constantly. You’re also faced with reams of data (views, subscribers, clicks) and financial incentives that constantly encourage you to be working and creating more more more. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. For me, nature provides the respite I need to quiet my mind, refocus my priorities, and refill my creative batteries. I do this as often as I can, and on different scales. For example, I try and get outside every single day for some small-scale nature time. This doesn’t fully recharge my batteries, but is very effective for brief respites from the daily grind. On the other hand though, sometimes I need much more than that, and will retreat to the natural world for days, or even weeks, at a time for a much more thorough digital detox. This is obviously much more difficult to achieve, and I only take these trips every so often, but they provide a much longer lasting restorative effect.

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