I almost quit.

Something crazy happened in America...

Friends, I have to be truthful about something.

Before I get into it though, can I ask: are you still here? Please reply to this email, or leave a comment below on the Substack app if you are…

So here it is: I’ve felt like quitting this whole thing over the past months. The algorithms have changed so much and my audiences have been all over the place.

For example, my regular travel content, whether in Scotland or America, has been seen by hardly anyone, while silly videos of me talking about my local football club (Hearts) have blown up with a hyper local audiences.

Meanwhile, the financial balance is way out of whack - it’s now way more expensive for me to make these videos than what I get back, meaning I’ve been making a huge loss doing them.

So I have been feeling despondent to say the least, thinking I should accept this fate and move on… making videos just for fun, as and when I please.

And then I went to Boston a couple of weeks ago, and something crazy happened.

There were alerts all over the TV news that the Northern Lights might be seen in many places across America, even as far south as Florida, later that night. Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen. Nonetheless, up there in Boston we did have a good chance, so Teka and I jumped in our hire car and looked on Google maps.

We looked for any piece of land to the north of Boston (less light pollution) and, ideally, sticking out to sea.

The map below revealed a ‘point’ that seemed like an obvious choice, and only an hour or so drive:

Do you see what I did? A place called Rockport… it looked like an ideal place to watch the aurora.

So we set off into the night, and even managed to stop for a burger in Salem at an Irish bar in the town’s main street, which was strangely full of Scottish people.

Anyway, we made our way to Rockport, which was sadly pretty dark so we couldn’t see much of the town - a shame as we are told it’s lovely.

Anyway, we parked the car on the pier, and as I shuffled out the driver’s door, a man parked next to me said: “how do you find the car? My wife drives one of those.” I told him it was a rental but seemed quite good.

We exchanged a smile and a nod and he got back in his car.

He then looked over at my wife, Teka, who was still in the car and about to get out. He looked back at me, opened his door and came flying out. “You’re Shaun!” he said. “My wife and I watch you on YouTube all the time.”

This has happened to us quite a few times and I’m always truly humbled, but to happen to me at a time when I was thinking of quitting, and in what seemed to us like the middle of nowhere, at a rocky point I’d picked randomly on a map, and in the middle of the night… well, let me tell you, I could have passed out with shock.

Teka and I spent the next couple of hours with our new friend - also called Sean, and he also has a Brazilian wife and daughter, who we spoke to on WhatsApp video (hi Aretuza and Brianna!), as well as his friend Will. Sean and Will were also out Northern Light hunting.

We talked about YouTube, travel, Scotland, America, Brazil, and the world in general - all the while, watching the aurora borealis put on a great display behind us. Here’s a few pictures (Will, Sean and I left to right):

It was lovely to meet Sean, his family, and Will. We had a great night and they are all lovely people.

Driving back to Boston, Teka and I looked at each other… neither of us could believe it had happened.

And as I say, this is not the first time. We’ve met viewers in a lot of random situations, but this seemed to be right at the top of unlikely scenarios.

It was an awesome experience all round, but also made me remember something important. My videos used to get hundreds of thousands of views without fail. Now they may get 5 or 10 thousand if I’m lucky.

This seems disappointing, and yet… those are thousands of people who tune in, week in week out. You! And I am tremendously grateful for it all.

Meanwhile, a lot of Americans keep saying to me: “why would you want to come here right now?”. Whenever they do, I remind them of all the lovely and amazing people we keep meeting across the States, north, south, east and west.

Thanks Sean for reminding me of this, and thanks to you for sticking around.

Shaun

P.S - I’ve just released a new video from St Augustine in Florida. Check it out below, or go to YouTube on your smart TV and search for ‘shaunvlog’.