I had a great time interviewing Jalmari Karvinen, the creator and visionary behind YouTube channel Jalmafi. YouTube is a platform where he uses his passion for photography and making videos. He has been working as an entrepreneur for four years. In this interview Karvinen shares his recent work experience and content in his YouTube channel and the inspiration behind it. Karvinen has great insights about building habits that really make a difference in everyday life. He shares his advice for reaching your goals and becoming the best version of yourself.
What is your academic background like?
At the moment I study at Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan. I am second year student. Before I have studied in Swedish speaking schools for my whole life even though I am not a Swedish speaker. When I was a kid, my parents put me in a Swedish speaking kindergarten, I started from there and now I speak kind of fluently. Of course, it’s a bit difficult sometimes, but I manage it.
Do you have any interesting work experience?
I have been an entrepreneur for four years. I have done videos and produced content for firms like Elisa, Partioaitta and Puolustusvoimat. I have also done football coaching. I did a video about my first ever interview to a summer job, I am 22 years old and it was the first job interview I have ever been to.
In the future I think I will always be an entrepreneur.
Let’s move on to your YouTube channel. What is your inspiration behind Jalmafi?
I have two kinds of inspirations. I always loved to make videos and take pictures. I think I made videos from the age of fifteen, which has given me a creative eye for that. Before I started this YouTube channel, I filmed videos for others. I never filmed myself or talked to the camera.
After I graduated from high school, I made three vlogs every week for three months. That’s where it started. The three main points why I create videos are the love of filmmaking, telling a story and lastly documenting my everyday life.
You have this interesting video concept Inspisode that you have made. Can you tell me more about that?
The goal is to inspire people to do what they love and what they are good at. If someone loves to play the piano, that someone should do it. The inspiration is to pass on a message of doing what you love and doing it great.
Photo by Landon Martin on Unsplash
Voittava rytmi (winning rhythm), how did you create it and why?
From the age of ten to the age of seventeen my main goal was to be a professional football player. At the time I created habits that would help me to get to my goal. I knew if I slept well I would eat well and if I ate well I would train well. However, after some injuries at the age of seventeen, I knew I couldn’t be a professional football player in the future. At the same time I shifted focus so that I kept the habits that helped me to be more productive. I call it voittava rytmi. It is a list of habits that make me the best version of myself. Yet of course, these are only my habits. Today I have taken a cold shower, meditated, trained and written to my journal. I sleep well and eat decent food, but I think everyone has to decide what is best for themselves. This is my voittava rytmi and these habits make me feel energetic, but I think everyone must experiment what kind of habits are the best for them.
If I try to do all these things seven days a week, I don’t get the rest I need. One or two days a week I try to take it as easy as possible and force myself not to do these habits that I have. The next week I can do these habits successfully from five to six days. My goal is to do it 80%-90% , not always 100%.
Was the inspiration behind creating the habits to become a professional football player or to become the best version of yourself?
I think at first it was to become a professional football player. I thought that everything I did outside the field was going to make me better or worse as a player. If I eat poorly it makes me a worse goal keeper. However, even after football had taken a smaller role in my life, I still kept these habits and I tried all the time to improve myself and to learn more about every aspect of life.
What is your knowledge base, do you have any interesting resources like podcasts or books that you go to?
I listen to podcasts like the one by Tim Ferris and School of Greatness by Lewis Howes and also audio books. I try to read two or three books every month. I also try to meet new and interesting people. Having conversations and listening to others are valuable skills to learn, so that you can ask good questions from the people you admire and want to learn more about their lifestyle and mindset.
Any recommendations for resources of information about health, wellbeing and motivation?
I think I always collect a few bits from every single book I read. But the main ways I get my resources are simply reading, listening and watching people do what they do, to listen to people, to talk to people. To try to live outside social media and the news and to focus on things that are not in there.
What does success mean to you?
I think success to me is not a destination but a journey. Happiness is a verb, it is choices that you do every day. To live life like it is a journey I try to enjoy every single day and find greatness in every situation and figure out how I want to live. Of course, I work hard and have a lot of specific goals, but I think that success is something you work for every single day, it is a habit. It is not a destination, it is a lifelong journey.
Can you share us some recent goals that you have achieved?
Last fall I decided that I will try to film everyday for one month. I tried thirty days of daily vlogging, which is also what I do on my YouTube channel. I decide what I am going to experiment. I don’t know what I like to do, but I make little experiments to find out. For example, this year I have been without sugar. That is something I don’t want to do for the whole of my life, but I can experiment it a little. Last month I was meditating every single day for at least fifteen minutes. Back in the fall I did almost one hundred of these daily vlogs. That was also an experiment which I did succeed in, but during which I also noticed that going without a rest is not good for me.
I want to know: How do you tolerate with negative thoughts? You have built impressive habits. Does that impact on having fewer negative thoughts?
I think everyone has negative thoughts all the time, every day. They don’t bother me that much. I know If I neglect my habits or I don’t follow them for a week, it will have more negative impact on me, or if I spend time on social media I get more negative thoughts. When I am too much on my phone, it has more negative impact on me. But when I follow my routine and habits, the negative thoughts don’t matter because I know what I am doing.
Do you have supportive people around you? Are they doing similar things, or do they have their own unique career?
Gather same minded people around you, because you are the average of the five people nearest to you. I think that the ten people nearest to me have quite the same attitude and similar mindset and it helps for both sides. They have their own thing, but something that is similar with every single people is that they have their own dreams and they work for them.
Lastly, do you have any advice to share with our readers?
Experiment. For example, if you think you could be a good baker or want to make a living as a baker, or have your own coffee shop, you should try it first. Maybe for one summer or one week you do those things related to your interests, in this example work at a coffee shop or in a bakery. Small experiments can tell you if that path is the right for you. Experiment it little by little and you can see if you want to do it or not. Do not wait until you reach the goals before you can be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take to reach that goal. Process is often more important than the outcome.