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How did you decide to start making Answer in Progress? What inspired you, and what made you think it was possible?

We started Answer in Progress as three students who felt their curiosity dying in the high-pressure, test-heavy environment of school. We all had our own reason to want to create a video project and we figured we'd dedicate it to reigniting our love of learning.

Visually, we were very inspired by Vox videos (it might be pretty obvious, haha). Tonally, we all had our own references, but Casey Neistat and Yes Theory were major sources.

We never really spent time doubting ourselves. Instead, we focused more on what we wanted to make, who we were making it for, and getting those pieces to connect. You can learn more about it in this video.

When times do get hard, we're lucky to have each other. Our skills and attitudes are really complementary so we always have someone to rely on to get us through tricky situations.

What was your original tech setup like? How has that changed over time? 

Our original tech set up was a DJI Osmo Pocket and our laptops with Premiere Pro. Things have gotten a little more complex since then. For production, we have Sony FX3s for video and Sennheiser MKE600s and Tentacle Sync TRACK E lavs for audio. We generally edit on Premiere Pro, but we'll use Descript to parse interview transcripts, Audition/Logic to tweak sound, and After Effects for motion graphics. We'll post each cut onto Frame.io for feedback between ourselves and occasionally sponsors. Then, if it's a longform video, that's the whole journey. But if it's a short, we'll run it through Descript for animated captions.

What was the learning curve like in terms of figuring out how to record and edit the show?

The learning curve was pretty logarithmic—we knew what we wanted to be making pretty early on, and since then, it's always been about tweaking things by 1% each time. We also share advice and assets around gear, storytelling, and editing pretty regularly so we've never felt too swamped in learning how to make our own videos.

How did you start to build an audience?

We started by identifying what we wanted to make and who we want to make a video for (basically following the advice Taha lays out in this video.) Then, we aimed to connect those things with collaborations and YouTube metadata. It's a bit of a boring answer but the key really is understanding the YouTube algorithm, which Taha spent most of 2021 doing (you can see what he learned in this video.)

When and how did you start to monetize the channel?

We sought out sponsorships as soon as we could, which involved emailing some folks we'd met in the past, regularly checking our emails, and working with ad agencies to see where we could fit.

What was it like to work a day job alongside making the show? What's it been like since it became a full-time job?

At the start of Answer in Progress, we were balancing school work and working full time hours across various gigs to make sure bills got paid. The hardest part was probably having enough energy to be in front of a camera. However, it was also kind of freeing having this creative escape through YouTube. Now that it's our full-time jobs, we're able to have way better work-life balance, but we need to be a lot more intentional about finding creative inspiration and fulfillment off the clock.

Do you have any advice for YouTubers who are just starting out now?

A lot of people focus on growing big and fast, but that can have some negative consequences—whether you succeed or fail. Instead, you should understand why you want to be a YouTuber. Do you want a community? Do you want a creative outlet? Do you want to inform people about something specific? Once you have that mission in mind, it'll be a lot easier to know which metrics you should focus on and which ones you can ignore.