Worse Than An Itchy Christmas Sweater | Holiday Update Spectacular

Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan
and welcome to a special

Christmas

or Hanukkah

or Kwanzaa

or festive atheism

or holiday season

or Wednesday

...vegan nugget.

Welcome back.

I thought for today’s holiday video I’d
change things up and film outside in the beautiful snow.

Then I remembered it’s Iowa and my face
would fall off if I was out there too long.

But don’t worry!

With this magic board behind me, the only
limits are our imaginations!

Okay so there may be other limitations.

So today, I wanted to make a year in review
video, looking back at all that’s happened

with Bite Size Vegan in 2016.

And to be honest I meant to do one of those
last year, as well.

I mean that’s what Bite Size Vegan’s about,
right?

Condensing complex information into engaging
bite size nuggets.

Veganism simplified.

Well, simplified but not reductionist.

It’s a tall order because there is so very
much that needs to be said, and so many who

need to be heard and so very, very little
time.

I wanted to capture the whole of this year,
try to distill it down to the

highlights and key points.

Leave you with the main take-aways and resources.

As well as of course linking to the holiday-specific
videos, like the Vegan Christmas recipe playlist,

the Vegan Holiday Survival Guide, Twas the Night before Christmas (Vegan Remake), and more.

They’re all linked down below and up there - somewhere.

And maybe—even in some small way—convey some
sense of what this year’s been like for

me as well—because it’s been quite a year.

It was the first year without Ooby, the heart
and soul of Bite Size Vegan.

In addition to the weekly content, I’ve
written and delivered speeches throughout

the United States, Canada, Portugal, Ireland
and England.

I’ve also visited slaughterhouses around the
world, looked into the eyes of hundreds of

living, breathing, sentient beings moments
before being murdered.

I’ve heard their screams.

The channel has grown, the views, comments
and messages and emails increased.

But it’s also taken a hit with YouTube’s
ongoing subscription and notification issues

which continue to persist even now.

And when one of the speeches started to take
off, YouTube censored it

against their own policies.

All the while the backlog of tasks has continued
to mount.

So, it’s because of what a year it’s been
that I don’t have that video for you today.

The administrative and foundational work behind
the scenes of Bite Size Vegan has expanded

to such an extent that the videos have become
an afterthought by necessity.

The very core of Bite Size Vegan itself.

I tried to make a simple outline of the workload
and various projects and areas taking so much

time away from the videos, but kept ending
up with something out of A Beautiful Mind.

That’s ridiculous.

Let me try to bust out a big picture view…

One of the main time sucks...which, does not
sound holiday cheery at all….

Is team-building.

Bringing on a team of volunteers is a priority,
but before opening that door, I need to have

a system in place for how to match people
with the various projects and iron out communication

and the like or I’d be spending the same
amount of time or more managing that I am

now with working with the projects themselves.

So that takes time and is super boring.

Here’s a pig with a hat!

Part of building the team is finding the best
formal structure for

Bite Size Vegan going forward.

And that is a lot of paperwork, consulting,
phone calls, emails, legal stuff...

And look! A cow with snow boots!

It’s a cow… just go with it.

Within all of this are a bunch of other subtasks
and whatnot, but I'm trying not to slide back into

the Beautiful Mind moment….

One of the sub-projecty things recently busted
out was a total re-vamp of the

Nugget Army page on Patreon.

It’s been on my list for many months, and
when Patreon asked to feature Bite Size Vegan

as a “creator of the week,” it gave me
the kick in the pants that I needed.

So after a good month or so of ___, with the
indespensible assistance of Bite Size Team

helper extraordinare Andrea (she’s from
ze Germany, So dass ich manchmal Deutsch sprechen

kann, aber normalerweise nicht, da wir über
Sachen reden, die mir auf Englisch sogar verwirrend

sind), as well as some stellar page-proofing
from patrons Steph and Kris, the page now

has greater specificity of goals, updated
description and even an infographic of where

the pledges go that I’ll be updating as
we go along, and improving as I find better

ways to quantify with clarity the highly variable
nature of Bite Size Vegan.

Wow!

This is such a festive video!

Look!

Holiday stuff I made when I was more appropriate
with my video timing!

So this wasn’t the holiday special or retrospective
I wanted to make.

And I may still give the year in review a
go…but I wanted to at least give you a glimpse

into what’s been going on behind the scenes,
and why I’m more absent from social media,

even slower to reply (if I even do), and releasing
far less content than I have in the years

of Bite Size Vegan.

This is all with the long-term in mind of
reaching more and more people with more and

more free education.

I want to thank all of you for every single
view, comment, thumbs up thingy, and especially

for sharing the videos and utilizing them
as resources and teaching tools.

Thank you for your stories of how the videos
have sparked change in your life.

Thank you for remaining open to change.

Thank you for being patient with me through
the growth pains and

all of my flaws, failures, and missteps.

I never cease to be amazed at hearing how
the videos and speeches

have reached people around the world.

I can’t wait to get back to focusing on
content production.

There are so very, very many topics on my
list, and so much more to cover.

So happy whatever the heck you may celebrate
or not.

(that would make a really great card).

Do see the description for resources.

And please bear with me a little longer through this
phase of growth.

If you want to be a part of the behind the
scenes messiness (because this video made it seem

so exciting!), come join us in the Nugget
Army.

We’re pretty cool…

okay they’re pretty cool.

Oh look it’s snowing!

Now go live vegan this holiday season, and I’ll see you soon.

These are videos.

They're also linked down there.

Oh my god it's hot!