Twenty years is a long time to spend in one kind of work. It gives you routines, people you know, a familiar Monday morning, and a paycheck you can plan around. It also makes the decision to quit my job feel much bigger than a sentence in a YouTube title. I did not wake up one morning, throw a laptop out of a window, and announce that I was becoming a full-time creator. I thought about it for a long time. I was excited, scared, sad, and very aware that there is no magic button after you leave a steady job.
When I quit my job, I was not quitting YouTube. I was doing the opposite. I want to give YouTube, Automate Like Pro training, and our community the time I could never fully give them while I was also working a nine-to-five. That does not mean I suddenly know every answer. It means I want to find out what happens when I stop keeping one foot in each world.
There is an awkward part of this story too. I did not quit my job after some massive channel win. My subscriber growth is at the lowest point I have seen. That gets into your head. You start wondering whether the work is useful or whether the algorithm has quietly put your videos behind a plant in the corner. But the messages from students, members, and people who made something work in their homes still matter more to me than one bad analytics screen.
The next few months will be about doing the work, not pretending I have already won. I will make videos, improve the training, listen to what people need, and see what we can build together. That is the honest version. It is a little scary, but it is also the first time in a long time that I can give this project the attention it has been asking for.
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This article comes from my new video about why I quit my job after 20 years and what changes next. The video link will go here once it is live: DRAFT URL. Until then, you can watch my other YouTube videos here.
I wanted to write this down too, because a video can move fast. You hear the big sentence, “I quit my job,” and then your brain fills in the rest. The real story has more moving parts. It is about the work I have been doing after hours, the people who kept showing up, and the chance to do better work without pretending it will all be easy.
Why I quit my job now
For years, I had two jobs. One was the regular one. The other started when I got home: video ideas, scripts, filming, editing, articles, thumbnails, titles, uploads, Discord questions, course lessons, and the little fixes that somehow appear at midnight. I liked building all of it, but the list got too long for a side project.
That is why I quit my job. I want to make more useful videos, spend more time helping in Discord, and make the training easier to follow. I also want to be available when someone gets stuck instead of replying with a link several days later because life got busy again. Home Assistant is fun when it works. When one hidden setting blocks you for two hours, it is less of a hobby and more of a small personal argument with a menu.
I am not promising an endless stream of rushed videos. I quit my job so I can make the work better and more regular, not so I can feed the YouTube machine with empty noise. There is a difference. A useful video takes time to test, write, record, edit, turn into an article, and answer follow-up questions about. The part people see is only the tip of it.
The plan is simple, even if the work is not
My plan has three connected parts: better videos, better training, and a stronger Discord community. A video can help someone find a first step. Training can help them finish the job. Discord can help when the job fights back. I have seen that path work for people learning Home Assistant and AI, especially when the official docs are technically correct but do not quite answer the question they actually had.
My wife is learning to edit too, and she has already edited most of my recent videos, including the one above. We are learning how to work as a team. She is still learning, I am still trying to explain what I meant when I wrote a vague note like “make this part more interesting,” and we are both figuring it out. At least I finally have somebody else to blame when an edit looks strange. I am joking. Mostly.
That teamwork lets me spend more of my time on ideas, filming, teaching, and being present in the community. It is not a shortcut. It is a real change in how the work gets done. If I quit my job and then spend every hour doing exactly the same overloaded routine, I will have missed the point.
The people who made this possible
I need to say thank you properly. Patreons, YouTube members, Automate Like Pro members, and students have supported this work in different ways. Some people bought training. Some asked good questions. Some shared a video. Some helped another person in Discord before I could get there. When I quit my job, I was not stepping into this alone, even though it sometimes feels like a very big jump.
The reviews from the AI in Home Assistant course are a good reminder of why I keep doing this. Christian wrote that it gave him the push to finally start with LLMs in Home Assistant. Michael used what he learned for useful things like laundry weather warnings, network suggestions, and custom automations. George said he got local AI working in minutes instead of spending hours or days trying to piece together the usual docs. Those are real people getting real results in their homes. That is the part I want more of.
My own focus is less glamorous: make the next useful video, answer the next question, and keep learning what actually helps people.
Why this feels risky
I quit my job because I do not want to look back later and wonder what would have happened if I had given this my best real try. That is not the same as saying the outcome is guaranteed. It is not. Maybe the channel grows. Maybe it takes much longer than I hope. Maybe I make mistakes in public, which is almost certain because cameras are very good at saving those moments forever.
Still, a safe job does not remove every risk. It can also make it easy to keep postponing the work you care about most. I quit my job after weighing that honestly. The decision is serious, but it also feels right. I would rather put in the effort and learn from the result than keep wondering whether I stopped just before something good could happen.
If you want to help without buying anything
The easiest help is free. Subscribe to the channel if you are not already subscribed. Watch a video when it is useful for you. Share one with a friend who keeps saying they will set up Home Assistant “next weekend.” Leave a comment if you have a real question or a good idea. Those small things help more than they look like they do.
You can also get my free Smart Home Glossary (or my free + shipping real, physical paper book called Home Assistant AI Recipes). The book is whole another story that I will leave for later, but guys it is real and you can get one.
Regarding the Smart Home Glossary It is a PDF full of Home Assistant words, acronyms, and plain-English explanations. Type your name and e-mail. You will receive an e-mail from me to confirm you are not a robot, and the PDF will be sent to your inbox. You will also be subscribed to my newsletter where I share new content, updates, and my exclusive AI and HA challenge. It is free and you can unsubscribe anytime with one click.
If a training at https://automatelike.pro/courses/ happens to fit what you want to learn, becoming a student helps even more. But please do not feel pushed. Watching, subscribing, and sharing are already real support. I quit my job to make this work more useful, not to turn every conversation into a sales pitch.
If you want more Home Assistant ideas
I will keep sharing the things I test, the mistakes I make, and the Home Assistant ideas that are worth your time. You can browse more Home Assistant articles here or look through the AI articles here when you want something a little more experimental.
For now, I quit my job after 20 years and I am giving this my best shot. Come back and see what happens next.