Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on:

• Insects are everywhere, but so few of us truly understand the amazing things that are happening in our backyards and local areas. There are wonders of the natural world all around us, ready to be explored! 
• Spencer had an interest in insects and built his channel on his passions. Imagine what you could do if you made a channel on your passions, with your creativity and interes, you could go far!
• Spencer is 100% himself and lives life on his own terms. Stop trying to fit in. Let your freak flag fly, and live your passions and your own story! The world needs more people living life as the true version of themselves!

“My goal is to basically capture my viewer’s imagination the same way that these animals have captured my imagination.”

• The beauty of making videos is that there is always something to learn, something to get better at and improve on. Always try to be a continual beginner and always learning. Life is short, learn as much as you can, and you’d amazed at the places it can take you! 
• Spencer has a brilliant sense of intrigue and wonder. He loves to learn, is very curious and always looking to teach and show others what he learns. By being curious, he is continually learning, and adapting. By teaching, he learns the content on a deeper level to answer the questions, and they say you only truly know something when you can teach it to someone else. 
• Science is not a bad thing … or the boogeyman, despite what some politicians say! Science explains the world to us, why things happen and more. Let science teach you about the world!  

“… the saturation argument, you can either frame saturation as a hurdle or as an opportunity. And the way that I see it is, if there’s a lot of channels talking about a topic, then that means that there’s buzz on the internet around that topic. That means people are interested in that topic. And if you can add to the conversation, it doesn’t matter how many channels are there, they’ll watch yours too. “

• Spencer went from Pre-Med to YouTube. Understandably, he had some bumps with his parents, who were worried about what he was doing with his life. However, if you are open, honest, and stick to your guns, parents tend to understand, and will support you. Parents just want the best for you, but you can’t live life on what others want you to do. Risk assess the action you are taking, control the risks you can, have a fall back plan if it doesn’t work, and go for it! There is always a way to fix things, try something new etc. Life is short, look to level up daily and push your comfort zone!
• Spencer uses a whiteboard to plan out his ideas, link his ideas, and help him visualise and put his ideas together. I do it too and it greatly helps getting stuff out my head and onto a surface, I can edit, adapt, score out etc. I would recommend this one and this accessory pack to start with!
• Making and editing videos on YouTube can be very time consuming. However, you can speed it up using certain software, and making systems. I like to use things like template emails, template post profiles and the like. You can level up in each area, and make a system to batch process the jobs, speed things up, and get the work done, at a high quality! 

“The time’s gonna pass anyway. And if you actually want to do something, I think you’ll find a way to do it”

• Start working your hobbies now. Stop thinking you need the best equipment, more knowledge etc. You can start now, learn, network etc. The only thing holding you back is you!
• Time will pass. There will always be others doing it, or who started before you, or who are better than you. Stop making excuses to stay in your comfort zone. Make peace with your fear, and go for it! 
• Build funnels and systems to do the work for you. You don’t need to invent the wheel everytime. Create a shell for posts, and emails, prep your posts as you research the guest, build a online system for booking in guests, and rescheduling and so on. There are a lot of great tools out there that will help you speed up processes, freeing up your time and letting you focus more on the creative stuff! 

“… the saturation is only a problem. And it’s only a hurdle if you let it be a hurdle. If you’re like, okay, this is where the conversation’s at, how can I using my unique perspective and my unique experiences and my unique interests How can I add another voice to this? If you go if you approach it that way, like it’s not gonna be immediate success, but like you’ll be able to find success even in a saturated market. “

• Once you have worked out your target audience, figured out what they need and want, you can make videos that meet those needs, and will be watched. 
• Like a scale, stop caring what the numbers say. Do you feel your videos are getting better? Do you still enjoy the process and creative endeavour. Then balance that with the time it takes, the views, the cost per purchase per view. Passion is fantastic, but you need to be realistic in whatever you do. Balance both sides for the best return on your time. 
• Research is your friend. Research your topic, your guests, your sport, your average listener. Whatever it is, research and learn as much as you can and keep trying new style and new ideas. Something will click and resonate with your audience and will blow up your channel! 

“you’d be surprised where there is wildlife, honestly. You’d be very surprised. like People comment on my videos sometimes, they’re like, oh, but I live in a high rise, so I don’t have a backyard. I’m like, yeah, you do. Do you have bricks outside your window? Is there lichen on those bricks? Yeah, you’ve got wildlife outside your window. um Even those small little things like that, like little bits of moss and lichen on like the bricks of your house, there are things that live inside the lichen. So if you buy a cheap microscope online, you scrape that lichen off, put it in water overnight, take the take the lichen out of the water, shake the water onto your onto a microscope slide, you’ll see tardigrades, you’ll see different like microscopic crustaceans, you’ll see all kinds of weird microscopic life that’s just right outside your window. So even if you live in a high rise in like you know London or New York City or anywhere, like there’s there there’s definitely life closer to you than you think. And I think the biggest thing is, get kind of creative about where you look. Don’t be afraid to look behind your toilet to see what’s there. Don’t be afraid to look closer in the flowers in your front garden … Anywhere where there is structure, there is the potential for little living things to move in and find shelter there. Anywhere where there is resources. Plants are resources water is resources anything that has access to water So again the side of your house if it gets rained on there is water there There could be resources little little bits of algae and stuff that come from the wind That have taken root there are taken up by fungi and build lichens you know there’s all kinds of areas where life can seed and if you can look for those little places you can find things living there and the closer you look magnifying glass just physically getting closer um microscope whatever the more living things you’re going to see and you’d be surprised how biodiverse the world is “

• Spencer is always exploring and trying new things – what is stopping you trying new things and ideas? What is holding you back from trying until you find the thing(s) that works for you and your community!
• You don’t need to know everything right now. You can learn and develop your skillset as you go along. You can find coaches, mentors, and communities, to help you grow, develop and improve your knowledge and skillset! 
• Some wildlife can be scary and look terrifying. But don’t believe the myths, find out. Spencer uses a lot of science and analytical thinking to test theories and myths (in a safe way!). Stop accepting what others tell you happens or what you can do, and find out what you are truly capable of! 

“So we see that a fear of spiders is actually learned. So when I approach it from that perspective, people are like, where that they start to think, where where did I get this fear of spiders from? And it goes back to their parents freaking out when they saw a spider in the house. And so the case that I make in this video is that, you know, there’s a lot of ah a lot of growing up as an individual. You have to overcome fears that were instilled in you by your parents. A lot of progressing as a society is moving past fears that we had culturally in the past.”

• Life is about risk. To get what you want in life, you need to take risks, but to survive you need to take calculated and controlled risks. Spencer outlines in the video how he judges the animals behaviour before and after he handles it, what a bite would mean etc. He explains his thought process, on how he gauges loss vs win ratio, what the goals mean, how he controls what he can etc by doing a lot of research and planning beforehand. The more you know, the more you can make controlled, well thought out decisions, and make well thought out, calculated decisions, and take better controlled risks that help you achieve your goals.
• You don’t need the best equipment, expensive gadgets or equipment to start. Start small, start now! You can start in your backyard with your phone recording videos. You don’t need to spend thousands to start a channel or film. Waiting for equipment etc is just an excuse. Stop waiting. Start creating! 
• If you are bitten by an insect, one thing that can help is drinking water and keeping hydrated, as it can dilute the poison (obviously depends on the animal and type of bites!). 

“I would like to avoid a bite if I could. So I’m looking at, you know, temperament. You can read, I mean, you can read temperament with a lot of animals just by kind of looking at how they’re moving. So snakes, spiders, insects, centipedes. Very fast, spastic, erratic movement, they’re probably a lot more stressed. That’s just that’s just true of of any of the animals that I’ve worked with. the more The faster they’re moving and the more erratic their movement is, the more stressed they are. And the more stressed something is, the more likely it’s going to misread something that you do as a threat and it’s gonna bite in defense. um Snakes, for example, in order to handle them, you have to actually grip them, right? And gripping a snake, you have to try and make sure that you’re supporting it enough that it doesn’t feel like it’s being carried off by a predator. That’s the best way to keep a snake calm when you’re handling it. The problem is it’s also very invasive to do that. So if a snake is already scared when you come on it, it might not let you get it into a position where it’s comfortable and it will bite in defense. So I’m not going to simply just tail a venomous snake because a bite from that would be a trip ender or possibly even a life ender, depending on the species. But a lot of it comes down to behavior. If something is um really, really, really erratic, probably going to leave it alone. I’ll probably be hands off. I’ll keep it on a stick. I’ll keep it on a piece of bark. I’ll keep it in a container because it’s just like, okay, this thing is still an animal that I want to film and I want to showcase, but it’s not an individual that I feel comfortable letting on my bare skin with.

• Spencer is always setting himself projects to keep focused on, and motivated (without letting himself be defined by the outcome!). Setting goals can be great, but if you achieve them, then what? You need to be continually reviewing your goals and systems, to improve and evolve as a performer and person. Setting new goals as you achieve goals, so you are continually pushing yourself towards new targets and not getting stuck and stale.
• Working hard is great, but working smart is better. And most important, is resting! You need to achieve a good work/rest balance, to keep focused, have energy, and avoid burning out! Grinding 24/7 is a bad thing and not something people actually do, they just say it to look cool. Like building muscle, work out on your craft, and then take time to recover, so your creative brain recovers to let you work at full capacity the next time. 
• Be curious about life. Don’t just see a bug and shriek. Watch it. See how it moves. Look at why it might be there. What animals are in your local area. Why? What? When? Always ask questions, and what you don’t know, go and find out the answer. The journey to the answer might take you to a new level in your life … or on an adventure!