How Much YouTube Paid Me in My First Month at age 63

On February 1st, I was just a woman who had been laid off at the age of 63. I sat in my car with a lot of uncertainty. I didn't have any lighting kit or a master plan or even a real sense of what came next. I just know I had a story to share about ending in the corporate life. I didn't know it then, but that moment was definitely a fork in the road. Today I want to share exactly what happened in the 60 days since the numbers, the surprises, and why the direction of this channel is shifting into something much more intentional. You know, I posted that first video about my layoff and and then I posted the second video about side hustles and it it wasn't to be a YouTube guru or anything. It was I just wanted to share what I had been doing just to help hope hopefully it would be helpful to other people. And because you all showed up for my videos, I was able to get monetized quicker than I ever thought I would. I want to be completely transparent with you guys because it is possible to earn money on this platform especially if you are over 50 and over 60. So if you have been wanting to start please please start and I've said it in a video before just start scared start messy. It doesn't matter just Just press play and start your video. Start talking about the things that excite you, the things that bring you joy, the things that you're good at or you have a know lot of knowledge about. Somebody will find you. Your tribe will find you. And that's I guess that's my biggest point of this video besides sharing with you guys how much money I did earn. Um, is it going to make me rich? No. No. But is it going to help feed my little adventures? Sure, absolutely. And that just allows me to bring more videos to my channel. So, if you're sitting on the fence, I encourage you to pick up your phone and go hit record. Just hit record. You might not like the video. Post it anyways. Look at it, edit it, post it. And you you'll never know. It could be the one video. But I really do encourage you to start that YouTube channel. I waited so long to start mine. Um, I actually I think I started in or I started my channel or set up my channel um in December of 2024. I know because I had just gone through kidney cancer that year and you know when you have some kind of diagnosis like that you usually have these you know u moving perspectives of life and so I had been talking about doing a YouTube channel and I figured this is my time this is my time and but I was too scared I thought I needed to lose more weight um I didn't feel comfortable on camera. And so a whole year went by, a whole year of, you know, just life. And then when I got laid off, that was I think that was just the the straw that broke the camel's back. And I was like, I'm done. I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to do it. And that's what I did. So, um, so if you're thinking about it, go do it. I promise it'll be okay. Before we head in, hi, my name's Leanne. Welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, thanks for joining. This channel is all about a retired life and just embracing a slower lifestyle with intentional days. And uh thank you for being here. I really appreciate it. Okay, let's go into the office now and look at the numbers. Okay, so let's go in and look at the month of February. Now remember, this is only going to be a partial month. And we're just going to look at the overall number. So let's click on revenue. And you can see that I didn't start earning anything until February 13th. I started the channel February 1st and got monetized on the 13th. So for the whole month, the rest of the month of um February, you can see it went up and down. I made 26413. I'll take it. It covered pretty much my grocery bill for the month. I'm happy with that. So, I am going to show you 2025 and 2026 because there's been some comments that have said that I had my channel prior to February 1st. And you can see 2026 I didn't have any videos. And you can see in all of 2025, I had nothing. So I did not have my channel prior to February 1st. Okay, let's move on now to the month of March for the full month. So you can see for the full month, it's gone up and down. It's never steady. Don't ever expect it to be steady. But you can see for the full month of March that will be paid out next week between the 21st and the 26th is $4.914. Not bad. I'll take it. Definitely going in my savings account. It'll help me fund a couple adventures this month. And I was pretty excited about that. I know people make more money than this, but I'm just glad I made any money. And then I wanted to move over here and I wanted to show you my my all-time videos or I guess the most most viewed videos. Um you can see on this one this was my first video and the view and then this was my second video. So, and the views are So, the first video is now at 129,000 views and some change. And the second video is at 101,000 and some change. I'm super excited about it. It's still paying me money, a little bit of money each month, which I I'll take it. I'm not going to complain. So, those are my numbers for part of February and the month of March. So, if you wondered whether you could make money on YouTube, yes, you can. So, like I said before, go grab your phone and hit record and upload that first video. Now, I want to pause here for a second because I know how hard people work on this platform, and I honestly do not have a pro tip or a secret formula for why this happened so fast. I didn't do anything special. I just showed up and shared my story. You know, I think we're all just craving something authentic, someone to say, "Hey, this is my life. It's a bit messy, but it's mine." I guess if there's any secret at all, it's just the power of being yourself. That realization is really what gave me the peace to stop worrying about what I should be posting and started sharing what I actually love. Which is why you've recently seen my adventures I've been going out on and sharing my thoughts and visuals on slow living. Slow living isn't just about the places I'm exploring. It's also about how I spend my time when the phone is put away. My corporate life was always about the final product or meeting a quota. And now I'm learning the beauty of the process. Photography has taught me to really slow down to really notice the details. And painting it's taught me how to find my flow again. I found that my hands, they really need to stay busy sometimes so my mind can stay still. These quiet moments are at home are where I found my true retirement, not in a spreadsheet, but in the freedom to create without a deadline. So, this channel is evolving. While the numbers from February and March were a blessing, my heart is pulling me towards the stillness. I'm still going to share the practical tips when they are needed, but mostly I want to take you with me into the art of slow living. I can't believe it, but we're currently about 600 subscribers away from 10,000. I am utterly shocked. I never never in my wildest dreams would have thought that would have happened from uploading my first video back on February 1st. Thank you all so much for joining me. If you found a little bit of peace here today or if you're navigating your own new chapter, I hope that you will come along and join our little community over here. It's growing fast and I'm so thankful all of you for watching today and I will see you guys in the next video.