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Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan
and welcome to a special
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Christmas
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or Hanukkah
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or Kwanzaa
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or festive atheism
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or holiday season
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or Wednesday
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...vegan nugget.
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Welcome back.
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I thought for today’s holiday video I’d
change things up and film outside in the beautiful snow.
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Then I remembered it’s Iowa and my face
would fall off if I was out there too long.
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But don’t worry!
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With this magic board behind me, the only
limits are our imaginations!
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Okay so there may be other limitations.
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So today, I wanted to make a year in review
video, looking back at all that’s happened
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with Bite Size Vegan in 2016.
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And to be honest I meant to do one of those
last year, as well.
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I mean that’s what Bite Size Vegan’s about,
right?
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Condensing complex information into engaging
bite size nuggets.
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Veganism simplified.
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Well, simplified but not reductionist.
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It’s a tall order because there is so very
much that needs to be said, and so many who
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need to be heard and so very, very little
time.
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I wanted to capture the whole of this year,
try to distill it down to the
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highlights and key points.
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Leave you with the main take-aways and resources.
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As well as of course linking to the holiday-specific
videos, like the Vegan Christmas recipe playlist,
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the Vegan Holiday Survival Guide, Twas the Night before Christmas (Vegan Remake), and more.
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They’re all linked down below and up there - somewhere.
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And maybe—even in some small way—convey some
sense of what this year’s been like for
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me as well—because it’s been quite a year.
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It was the first year without Ooby, the heart
and soul of Bite Size Vegan.
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In addition to the weekly content, I’ve
written and delivered speeches throughout
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the United States, Canada, Portugal, Ireland
and England.
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I’ve also visited slaughterhouses around the
world, looked into the eyes of hundreds of
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living, breathing, sentient beings moments
before being murdered.
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I’ve heard their screams.
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The channel has grown, the views, comments
and messages and emails increased.
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But it’s also taken a hit with YouTube’s
ongoing subscription and notification issues
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which continue to persist even now.
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And when one of the speeches started to take
off, YouTube censored it
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against their own policies.
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All the while the backlog of tasks has continued
to mount.
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So, it’s because of what a year it’s been
that I don’t have that video for you today.
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The administrative and foundational work behind
the scenes of Bite Size Vegan has expanded
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to such an extent that the videos have become
an afterthought by necessity.
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The very core of Bite Size Vegan itself.
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I tried to make a simple outline of the workload
and various projects and areas taking so much
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time away from the videos, but kept ending
up with something out of A Beautiful Mind.
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That’s ridiculous.
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Let me try to bust out a big picture view…
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One of the main time sucks...which, does not
sound holiday cheery at all….
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Is team-building.
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Bringing on a team of volunteers is a priority,
but before opening that door, I need to have
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a system in place for how to match people
with the various projects and iron out communication
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and the like or I’d be spending the same
amount of time or more managing that I am
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now with working with the projects themselves.
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So that takes time and is super boring.
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Here’s a pig with a hat!
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Part of building the team is finding the best
formal structure for
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Bite Size Vegan going forward.
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And that is a lot of paperwork, consulting,
phone calls, emails, legal stuff...
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And look! A cow with snow boots!
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It’s a cow… just go with it.
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Within all of this are a bunch of other subtasks
and whatnot, but I'm trying not to slide back into
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the Beautiful Mind moment….
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One of the sub-projecty things recently busted
out was a total re-vamp of the
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Nugget Army page on Patreon.
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It’s been on my list for many months, and
when Patreon asked to feature Bite Size Vegan
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as a “creator of the week,” it gave me
the kick in the pants that I needed.
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So after a good month or so of ___, with the
indespensible assistance of Bite Size Team
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helper extraordinare Andrea (she’s from
ze Germany, So dass ich manchmal Deutsch sprechen
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kann, aber normalerweise nicht, da wir über
Sachen reden, die mir auf Englisch sogar verwirrend
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sind), as well as some stellar page-proofing
from patrons Steph and Kris, the page now
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has greater specificity of goals, updated
description and even an infographic of where
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the pledges go that I’ll be updating as
we go along, and improving as I find better
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ways to quantify with clarity the highly variable
nature of Bite Size Vegan.
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Wow!
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This is such a festive video!
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Look!
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Holiday stuff I made when I was more appropriate
with my video timing!
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So this wasn’t the holiday special or retrospective
I wanted to make.
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And I may still give the year in review a
go…but I wanted to at least give you a glimpse
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into what’s been going on behind the scenes,
and why I’m more absent from social media,
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even slower to reply (if I even do), and releasing
far less content than I have in the years
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of Bite Size Vegan.
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This is all with the long-term in mind of
reaching more and more people with more and
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more free education.
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I want to thank all of you for every single
view, comment, thumbs up thingy, and especially
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for sharing the videos and utilizing them
as resources and teaching tools.
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Thank you for your stories of how the videos
have sparked change in your life.
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Thank you for remaining open to change.
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Thank you for being patient with me through
the growth pains and
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all of my flaws, failures, and missteps.
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I never cease to be amazed at hearing how
the videos and speeches
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have reached people around the world.
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I can’t wait to get back to focusing on
content production.
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There are so very, very many topics on my
list, and so much more to cover.
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So happy whatever the heck you may celebrate
or not.
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(that would make a really great card).
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Do see the description for resources.
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And please bear with me a little longer through this
phase of growth.
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If you want to be a part of the behind the
scenes messiness (because this video made it seem
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so exciting!), come join us in the Nugget
Army.
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We’re pretty cool…
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okay they’re pretty cool.
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Oh look it’s snowing!
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Now go live vegan this holiday season, and I’ll see you soon.
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These are videos.
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They're also linked down there.
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Oh my god it's hot!