[SPEAKER_00]: in three days I grew, like, seventy thousand on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_02]: And did it grow your YouTube group as well?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I grew four thousand subscribers off one Instagram post.
[SPEAKER_03]: Most creators post for years with nothing to show for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So how did Sam Newton post four times and gain a hundred and twenty thousand followers?
[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't luck.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was strategy, storytelling, and showing up as himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: showing up yourself and trying to bring your personality to the table, I think now more than ever is going to be such a big thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: With AI, with people being able to create chip instantly, people are going to want to know the behind the scenes, how things were made now more than ever, and they're going to want to know the story of who made it.
[SPEAKER_05]: In this episode, Sam breaks down the mindset shift that helped him build one of the most loyal communities online.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stop trying to talk to thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people, or hundreds of people in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to one person.
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, that's how you build a community of a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why many of your preconceived ideas for what separates duck creators from successful creators are wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you have to live a certain life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be a beautiful person with a cool story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like just show up, tell the stories that you want to tell things that excite you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's going to start bringing people on your brand because you can't fake being real.
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're ready to finally escape small creator hell and build a real community online, you're going to love this episode.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's go!
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay Sam, most people I would say are grinding, twenty four seven on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're trying to grow like crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Last year, you grew a hundred and twenty thousand people in your community off of four posts.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why do you think that is?
[SPEAKER_03]: And now I mean now you're going hard on short form too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going hard to avoid, but not as hard as I, I think a lot of people are like when it's like every day there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying like, uh, I'm trying different things for sure because I've been on YouTube for so long that I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I still really, like, want YouTube to be my main focus, but I see, I've been a short form hater for so long.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I feel like we should roll these clips.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, Sam last time we had him on the show was like, I'll never do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still, I still, I still fucking hate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do see the allure of, like,
[SPEAKER_00]: that top level like cold marketing, getting people in to understand and then hopefully of those people, ten percent kind of start digging and then they can actually figure out who I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I mean last year I just, it was funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I posted like fifteen times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And of those fifteen like four of them hit and it just went crazy in terms of how many followers I got and from that a couple things I learned one just like that's like crack that day that day came and I'll say do this is
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that I've done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would've screwed it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty similar.
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, and do you wake up, and you just check your phone, and in three days, I grew like, seventy thousand on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_02]: And didn't grow your YouTube group as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I grew four thousand subscribers off one Instagram.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, which was crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: but also there was like some things that I unpacked about that post that like made sense for my like long-form content that where it's really well it's getting a few things like I made the initial it's like
[SPEAKER_00]: They're making a little girl makes this like little dick joke about how if you don't speak or I don't know what she says maybe we can cut it in but she's just like hey if if you come to me and you're this side yeah yeah this side keep your voice down and then I come in and I just start whispering like
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, so you have that hook, obviously, just like the classic Instagram hook, which I kind of understand, like, I hated it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do I hate the hooks and the bait?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm starting to understand that, you know, there's a place for it where if you can hook them, get them to stop scrolling and then
[SPEAKER_00]: allow yourself to create content with depth after that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's some room to play around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I had that hook, which I think a lot of people got some laughs at.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it went into some of my actual travel films.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, I make travel films, check out some of my stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it like transitioned in a cool way into my travel films.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it had the hook, then it had this like unexpected like diversion.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I feel like short form as long as you can keep it as unexpected as possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: People stick around because they're like, well, oh, it didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: didn't expect that or you like, they think they know what to expect and it goes a different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then from there, you had that transition into my content or my films that I've made.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I added a voice over like, hey, if you're still here, let's talk for a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Sam, I'm tired of making like short form content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I want to make films.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to go out there and I want to see the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just that other layer of expectations because it went from a small dick joke to this is what I wanted to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to tell stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to travel and I think a lot of people, you know, they saw that shock factor and then they're like, oh, well, there's there's some depth here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then basically at the end, I have this call to action like
[SPEAKER_00]: If this is what you like, if this is what you enjoy, check out some of my stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And having that call to action, that's what skyrocketed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you can have a drone, real-kit, ten million views, and only gain like four hundred followers.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this, yeah, went crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's interesting.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm always curious to know, like, should I say, hey, if you like this, check me out more follow, like, I never know if it's like cheesy to ask for it or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was in a way that, like, tied together well with the video itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I said, like, I don't know exactly what I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I didn't say, like, hey, follow for more, like, content like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just straight up like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Damn, I don't even know what I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was just like talking about the, you know, this is what I love.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if this is something that you love to, like, let's make some stuff together.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and it wasn't on as on the nose, but it really, um, knocked it out of the park in terms of like, had the hook.
[SPEAKER_00]: had the bait and switch, like went into something completely different and unexpected, kept you on your toes, then I added this voice over and added some depth and some meaning and something that people can actually connect to me with, which I think is the biggest thing that like so many people aren't doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know people that like go viral time after time again, they're always on my page.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm seeing them all the time and then you go back and you check and you're like, sixty thousand followers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why is this not connecting to a bigger like amount of conversion in terms of people that follow?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if you don't have like that that community calling and that kind of message to get people on board, then
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little bit tougher.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of just like fugacy almost, you know, like it's like, it's like empty empty views in a way.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like a brand.
[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like just because it got, you know, five million or whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's trying to get people to go to YouTube to connect deeper and see these awesome videos that are taking so much more time.
[SPEAKER_03]: If someone was trying to, let's just say, grow their personal brand if they wanted to do something on YouTube or they wanted something on Instagram and move people to YouTube, what do you feel like are two to three different factors you would tell them to focus on?
[SPEAKER_00]: showing up yourself is so, so, so big.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I think you guys can attest to this time of time again, because your brand is like, you've created such an incredible, not niche, but like, lane for your guys in the creation world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys don't have like millions of followers or millions, but like you guys show up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You show your personal story.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys always show up in your own content and you tell your stories and ways that are so relatable and with the pod and with your own.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like that's all you really need.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need a huge following.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the moment you start doing that, I think you can connect to so many people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Thousand True Followers type.
[SPEAKER_00]: where if you can really really connect with people, and so I'd say the first thing, show up like yourself, and like a lot of people are like, ah, it's a hard, it's a probably the hardest thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to just start, like, Instagram stories are so, so easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gone in twenty four hours, no one cares, just start posting stuff like, hey, I'm doing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing that and it's going to be weird at first, but it's going to get easier and easier.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always say Instagram stories, another really, really easy way to kind of get around it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you actually don't want to be on camera, a very simple way to put yourself out there as voiceovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just film your day, add the voice over after, because you can add character, you can edit it later, you can really get an idea of how you want to say it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's so many animator YouTubers that have hundreds of millions of subscribers and people have never seen their fucking face.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just because they're charismatic, they're funny, they're fun, and they're just adding voiceovers on top of their self.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so showing up yourself and trying to bring your personality to the table, I think now more than ever is going to be such a big thing because with AI, with people being able to create chip instantly, people are going to want to know
[SPEAKER_00]: two things are going to know the behind the scenes how things were made now more than ever and you're already seeing that on short form content and they're going to want to know the story of like who made it right not only how it wasn't made but who made it what's their story what's their motivation behind it and so
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say that's the biggest one.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can learn how to communicate your own story and your own journey, people will care so, so, so much more.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why so many creators are like like creator brands, like Emma Chamberlain and all these creator run brands are killing it right now because
[SPEAKER_00]: People know the the story behind they understand the like what went into making it and the people behind the brand and I think it's the same thing with any kind of creation going forward like if you are scared of putting yourself out there It's gonna be much much much harder and then stop lying like people are like I'm an introvert.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not good on camera.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not like it I've been doing YouTube for at the fifteen years now actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I sent you I said what have you?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't know if I said yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was a the fifteen year YouTube like human on YouTube for fifteen years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like that's very easy I mean my first like seven years of shooting was more like I'm just filming my life like
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't trying to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: YouTuber, I wasn't trying.
[SPEAKER_00]: YouTube just happened to be the platform I put things on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I think it's been the last, like since, twenty, eighteen, the last seven years where I'm like, all right, I'm gonna try making YouTube a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it's something being on camera, being good at telling stories, being good at telling your own story isn't an easy thing to do and people think it's just a natural thing that that happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think you have to like,
[SPEAKER_00]: live a certain life you don't have to be a beautiful person with a cool story like just show up tell the the the stories that you want to tell things that excite you and that's going to start bringing people on your brand because you can't fake being real I mean you could try your hardest but I think after a certain amount of time people can weed it out
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think something I respect a ton about what you've built in your content is it never feels like you've drifted away from who you are.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like for as long as I've known you, you put out what you want to put out, you don't really conform to like, oh, this algorithm is, you know, is doing this certain thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's, it's made people want to gravitate more towards you because you're like, you just want to support this guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, I respect this, he's doing his thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And in a world where like you stated, it's just like my feet is filled with AI gorillas and pandas right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's fucking insane what is happening and how many millions of videos are being uploaded today that aren't a real person.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think you're so right where it's like if you can lean into your stuff, your shit, things that you've been through, things that you want to talk about, it's like people are going to find that and they're going to find it interesting and be able to like gravitate towards that.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, that's the type of stuff that I want to watch.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, do you find yourself trying to search for that content right now like other stuff like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: in terms of like what I can see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's not necessarily.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not against a panda video.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what I can get a good AI stormtrooper vlog man, I'm in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, but I think it's less what I search for, but more but more than what I gravitate towards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like when you see, especially with all this just slop and bullshit that you wake up, you scroll, not unless you're doing the rock
[SPEAKER_00]: It's ninety-nine minutes, baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you'll start scrolling, obviously, you know, out of twenty videos, nineteen of them will be just like, here's a trend, here's a black bar with white text like, boys trip to Canada, going crazy, and just like these same, and not, there's nothing necessarily wrong with trans, there's nothing necessarily wrong with experimenting and doing different things, but I feel like you kind of get used to what
[SPEAKER_00]: What you see you open up the app and you're like, okay, here's more of the same right and then when you find that one video and every twenty videos where you're like, well
[SPEAKER_00]: This feels human.
[SPEAKER_00]: This feels real.
[SPEAKER_00]: This feels like it's coming from somebody that that seems like they really care about what they're making.
[SPEAKER_00]: That to me is what where that longevity is going to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it allows a creator like me to have seasons, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where I'm like, there might be three, four or five months stretch where my channel's not doing as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or where I'm not making as much
[SPEAKER_00]: content or films or whatever it might be but people know me they've been riding with my brand for so long it's like your friend Sam this is what he does and it allows you like you said just to kind of have this connection with the creator that you know them it's almost like a friend that you've been supporting for so long that you know I can pivot I can try different things as long as it comes from me it comes from their friend Sam then people hop on board and and still rock with it so
[SPEAKER_05]: We hope you're enjoying this episode with Sam, but real quick, we want to tell you about an awesome free product we have for you guys.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, it's a ten minute personal brand kickstart because we want to help you make better content online.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the top link in the description and it's free, ninety nine.
[SPEAKER_03]: Go check it out.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, keep it real.
[SPEAKER_05]: How do you think about long form, verse, short form when it comes to building depth with your audience and also having
[SPEAKER_05]: strategy when it comes to social media because you're someone who like you said it's not like you're going every single week on YouTube or you're not posting every single day on short form.
[SPEAKER_05]: So like how are you thinking about your strategy when it comes to short form versus long form and how does it play into building depth with your audience?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think one on column of smear podcast, Jacob Collier, Collier, he said, it's not about the amount of people you've reached.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's of the people you've reached, how many did you move and like to me that I've never heard something that clicks so much because genuinely, if you're making something, my mentality, it's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: And in order to move other people, the first person you have to move is yourself, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm making something that at the end of when I'm finished, like finish my edit, like if it's, if I'm trying to make something funny or stupid, and I can't stop giggling, like in the edit, like this is so fucking dumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm laughing, and I'm showing my voice like they'd look at this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I know other people are gonna have that reaction, or if I'm making something I want it to be emotional, and I'm like choking up, like when I made the video of my dad, I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You should see me it's like a meme like in Premiere Pro just balling my eyes out and then stop and then whenever it's always this moment when a video is done to like for some reason I finally watched that final export and I just I just ball and I know If I have that that
[SPEAKER_00]: reaction that like actual if it can move if what I make moves me it's going to be able to move other people and that's so so important and so I think that's my number one thing right I have to create stuff that is genuinely going to move me because then if that happens right if I feel that connection I know it's going to you know at least connect with a certain amount of people whether or not blows up whether or not hundreds of thousands of people see it
[SPEAKER_00]: There's gonna be a higher percentage of the people that do watch it that are really gonna fuck with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the most important thing for me.
[SPEAKER_05]: I could just see you.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're like editing and you're like bawling.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're just like you finish your edit.
[SPEAKER_05]: You just take.
[UNKNOWN]: He's done it again.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can't keep getting away with this.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's too good.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, buddy, you mentioned something that I kind of want to backtrack a little into.
[SPEAKER_03]: Were you saying that you go kind of through seasons where you're like, posting a lot, or maybe you're taking a little bit of a break and you're like, maybe views are down.
[SPEAKER_03]: In a world where like, that is your job.
[SPEAKER_03]: How do you kind of overcome those feelings when we are like, we're posting to YouTube, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: And at the end of the day, it matters what you love the piece.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, that's number one, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: I was just what I'm getting from like, all of us doing this.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, we posted something.
[SPEAKER_03]: We loved it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: It checks the box, but also it is a business and it's how we live.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just curious, like, what you have to tell people about kind of these seasons that you write in and kind of how the ebs and flows of being a creator impact you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to say this without sounding like douchey for lack of a better term, but like I put in so much work to the point where I feel like I've allowed myself to have those seasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you're just starting, you're like, yeah, I'll be a YouTuber and you're six months in and you're like, I just think I need like four months of
[SPEAKER_00]: relaxing and I'm burnt at like I'm just not going to post for the next six months.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might not work out for you, you know, you haven't given yourself the the ability to have like a season of relaxing and just like stopping making things for a while because you haven't built up that base.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've given myself that because I put in ten years of work of just like, yeah, fifteen now, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've just tried to build an audience on a certain platform that once I've gotten to a certain spot, I'm like, all right, you know, it gives me time to look back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I still have my sponsors.
[SPEAKER_00]: I still, I'm in a very privileged position to even walk away and then come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it's just really, really important to have that base and give yourself, like, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to have a plan for at least a year start building up focus on what you want to focus on and then you know once you feel that momentum is real then you can kind of adapt it but but for me it really gives myself a lot of gives me a lot of I don't know how to say it but like I know that when I
[SPEAKER_00]: don't post for a month and a half and I come back like people will be there.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, but I think that's attributed to the type of content that you make.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not you trying to go viral.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're making pieces that are meaningful to you and it resonates with people.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so yeah, it allows you to build that depth with your audience, take a step back.
[SPEAKER_05]: I also think with the type of videos that you like to make specifically, you need to give yourself time to experience more life and find stories that you want to tell.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, because that's the kind of films that you want to make.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so it's almost necessary for you to take that step back, go experience life, go to Bali again, and find a new story to tell, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: With travel films too, I can't just wake up in LA one day and be like, damn, I need to make a viral travel edit real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, let's just fly to Alaska, spend two weeks in Alaska.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it doesn't work like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, you could do that, but I'm saying I couldn't just wake up and just crush out and edit the way that other people are like, how can I go viral now?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to really plan out your stories and plan out where you're going to go next, what story you do on tell, and it makes it a little bit more intentional and less force, because I feel like people, when you come from this place of like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure a lot of people can relate.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wake up in the morning, you go on your phone, you see all these people posting and then the first thing you ask yourself is like, shit, I got to put something out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: What am I going to put out there?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're already behind, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're behind the April because now you're just like creating for the sake of creating and like sometimes that's good, but if you're just doing that, not because you're making something you want to, but because you see a trend that you're like, I got a hop on this real quick and you're like, I don't know why I'm doing it, but like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I'm just gonna get a quick drone shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for some people, some people are like, I just need to get out of my head and post.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some people are in that part of the internet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I respect that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm more of the, like, if it means just like posting a one drone clip for me, it's not gonna do much.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might go viral, but it wouldn't really bring the depth that I'm looking for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd rather spend a little bit more time, and that's where I'm at with my short form right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: My strategy where I'm like, you know, I'm gonna try to make stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's weird because I never on YouTube, I definitely don't make stuff where I'm trying to go viral, but like now on short form, I'm like, fuck, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I, you know, I'm leaning into it a little bit, but like, I'm still trying to keep that, what I talked about earlier true, where I'm like, if I can make something that,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it just reaches my audience already.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if it gets dirty, like my average view count on Instagram reels will be like fifty to a hundred k. And like if it can get like fifty k on the lower end, but I know it mostly just reached my following.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I made something with depth and I'm teaching them something honest or giving in my honest experience about something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it's a win for me because then of the people that watched it, I hope that those people were still moved and they connect to me more as opposed to like I said, a one off clip or a trend that I made that might have blown up and I get that dopamine of like, look at all these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: liking and commenting, and these people have an arguments in my comment section.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then there's never that conversion of community and longevity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to, like, if you want to really weather the storm and make this your thing for a long, long time, you're going to have to be a real honest person and people will start seeing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, that'll give you that space to have those seasons and to be able to step back and back into it.
[SPEAKER_03]: On the topic of community, I think it's rare for people to be able to bring people together in person.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like it just doesn't really happen a lot and I think as AI comes more into the forefront of our lives, I feel like we're gonna crave just being together.
[SPEAKER_03]: I actually have a crazy story for both of you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yesterday, I was just dealing with somebody and they sent me a chat GPT thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: They had the dash and they left a quote on and I go, you just asked me a regular question from chat GPT brother.
[SPEAKER_03]: I go, you just gotta, I'm a totally normal guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: You just gotta fucking ask me a question.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's getting so great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to ask TATGPT how to ask more question.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, brother, I go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sound more human.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I literally said I go, I can't.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I can't talk to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm not even going to lie here.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is super weird.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they'll, what do you mean?
[SPEAKER_03]: I go, you just sent me a message from TATGPT.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ask me a question.
[SPEAKER_03]: I go, brother, you just asked me a fucking question.
[SPEAKER_03]: Send me a voice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Send me a voice though.
[SPEAKER_03]: Whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, if English isn't your primary language, I totally understand if you're using it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It goes, no, I'm from America.
[SPEAKER_03]: I go, okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm good, like, and that this is weird, but I think though as it's like, people are going to stop learning how to think it's going to get weird anyways, but I was going with this on the top of the community is you really do do a great job of bringing people together.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why and how can people start getting the squad together, getting the rocks together?
[SPEAKER_03]: like if you just have like maybe you're tiny you're just starting out but like you're craving getting people together how would you recommend people go about that because some of my most like fun times in the space has been going to your events like it's so fun to like see people in person then you meet a couple people and maybe watch your stuff or like and just see all these people you see online and they're super kind and normal and I think it's really refreshing
[SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate it of quick conversational pan go back to the AI stuff as everyone Everyone thinks the worst thing about a like there's obviously a tongue going on Yeah, everyone thinks like the worst thing about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like oh, they're gonna take our job.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna like all of these like these crazy clips coming out
[SPEAKER_00]: The worst thing I've experienced about AI, so far that's affected my life, is the amount, and I'm sure you guys are going to test it this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The amount of fucking AI emails I'm getting on a daily basis is blowing my mind of just people that's so obviously chatGPT script like Sam.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love your videos and how they connect with community and how you love wearing turtlenecks and making travel films.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like God.
[SPEAKER_03]: But every day I get catfished and it's like my name is in all caps.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, brain figure out.
[SPEAKER_03]: We've adjusted the rate for this.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's now one.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's now a hundred and ninety seven dollars.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's decimal.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The hundred and thirty eight.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do they find this, dude?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Every day I wake up sometimes I get six of them in a row and I'm just like, do I might open in you guys anymore?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's like spammy meals have always been a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now it's AI spammy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a spammy meal not even written or created by a human and they're just like auto-generating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, it's
[SPEAKER_00]: There's that, and then there's actual just people thinking they're sounding better by writing me a chatGPT email or like, dude, just be like, Sam, I fuck with your work.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really love what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, now it's like the advantage of sounding more human, but it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: Back to building community.
[SPEAKER_00]: Back to building community, wholesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I start by creating a chatGPT prompt on asking chat, what, how to, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you hear the nail ahead, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the internet's a weird place and now more than ever people are really, really craving, you know, connection and being able to meet people that they have a relationship with online.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's that one way relationship where they know me, but I don't know them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think people also, for me, I always say my events like,
[SPEAKER_00]: If we get the opportunity to talk, for people that don't know every year in LA, I have like a film festival, a pseudo film festival for creators where we have like nine or ten films and like four hundred people come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a live DJ and in and out truck, it's a whole lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: People come out from all over the world, but for me what I always say is like, even if we don't get the opportunity to talk like me and you who's attending this event,
[SPEAKER_00]: like you're in this rare rare position where everyone in this room is a creator or a creative person, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like look to your left, look to your right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you came to meet me or like one of the other filmmakers, but like fuck that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take ignore that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be able to meet maybe talk for for a couple of minutes, but what's way more important is looking to your left and your right and meeting other people that are trying to do what you're trying to do, not necessarily like
[SPEAKER_00]: I might have talked about this the last time I was on, but I always say people are like find a mentor that can guide you, find a mentor and like that is finding a mentor is extremely important in any industry.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I would argue is might be more important.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just finding other people that are at the same level as you that are trying to do the same thing at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because then you can, you're not like
[SPEAKER_00]: like trying to get your mentors attention, you know, like your sheer busy and they're always doing something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, no, it's, do you have your body?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're in the same position in life as you, like, yo, let's go to this shoot real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, and finding those people making that a priority to find those people that just want to go out and make things that are at the same level as you are that are in the same
[SPEAKER_00]: season of life as you are for me is so important because I wouldn't be as successful as I am if I didn't find Luke my business partner at the time in my life in which I found him right or if I met my buddy Chase at the time in my life in which I found him or my buddy Alex Romo like all of these guys Chris Valderas like I found friends at the perfect time that were at the same level as me that wanted the same thing
[SPEAKER_00]: that we could just help each other and grow together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that to me was more invaluable than any mentor could ever give to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the community element, like finding, creating these spaces where other people can come in and just meet each other for me is so, so important because that could ignite that spark and just a few people to find those friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you don't have friends, if it's not fun, then it's tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also a solo.
[SPEAKER_03]: Creating is like a very solo sport.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're just by yourself a lot of the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when you do find a friend, we found each other on TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was it.
[SPEAKER_00]: One DM.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: One DM and a hundred and sixty pods later.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I feel like you're so right.
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to get a DM some random dudes or girls in the internet and be like, hey,
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, do you shoot?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like would you be down to go do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Show up in the moment sessions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like every community on the internet has like a little niche, like community people, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm in the travel film space, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we cross over and like the creator film economy, but even then you guys have like a separate niche that
[SPEAKER_00]: wouldn't quite tap into my like you guys have like not that I wouldn't say like hustle culture but like me and Gary Vee don't have any fucking crossover you have to ask him about you oh yeah he's heard about yeah he said dude you're trying to come out to the next film for us he was saying that he's he's like you really hit the gym really hit the gym
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it's so hard, is there?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where's I gonna like, do you really?
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh my god, damn it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_05]: Two things about your so fast that I just wanted to touch on.
[SPEAKER_05]: One, there was a creator that I found his YouTube video randomly.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I stumbled upon it and I watched it and it was the cutest fucking video because this guy made a vlog about coming to your Facebook and being like, this is like a dream come true.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I remember just seeing it being like, man, how fucking cool is it that Sam's having an impact on this kid where he, this is like a dream come true for him to come to this event.
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought that was so dope.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then also this past time, Brendan and I brought our girlfriends and a few people came up and were like, oh, we love the fucking podcast.
[SPEAKER_05]: Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B. Gary B
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's just in that comment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But shit like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I do it man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really what makes me like gives me life because at the end of the day I don't think like he's not making that video because like he met Sam Newton or that he like I'm obviously I was an element of that but like
[SPEAKER_00]: What's more important is he comes to this event and not only does he get to meet me, it's like, oh, and then I ran into the boys from the five of five pot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ran into this person and that person and then that I look up to all these people on the internet and I'll top of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I talked to this guy who is just doing like filming car washes right now and I like we talked about how we wanted to break out of our niche and
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that all of these things, like people don't get the opportunity if you're from, like, I'm born and raised in LA.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've been surrounded by creative people in my whole life and, and, you know, LA's got its bullshit, just like anywhere else, but the privilege of being from LA is like, you get this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You get creativity and you get people that want to get shit done constantly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I empathize sympathize, empathize, empathize, empathize.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never experienced it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or both.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure, let's go with the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand if you're from like Baker's field and you've never experienced that community, how hard that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you show up to something like that and you're like, damn, like this is what I need.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need more people in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why I just say just actively try to make whatever attempt it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it's like once or twice a year to just look at what other events are happening, maybe it's the Sam Newton event in February and LA next year if you want to fly out, come on, bye.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just mark your calendars if there's something in your town or your city that you can go to, get yourself out of your comfort zone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just meet a couple people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fucking hate networking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate like just standing around me like, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: But like there is a certain element of like, okay, I'm gonna just get out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna see who I can meet and like maybe that one conversation can lead to something amazing.
[SPEAKER_05]: I wanted to ask you like what you think creators get wrong about building community online and the reason I wanted to ask is because I heard once that if you're looking for friends and wanting to network it's like you have to be the friend.
[SPEAKER_05]: I remember when I after I moved home from college I was like
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't really know many people out here and I was almost I was waiting for someone to message me out of the blue to be like yo do you want to go shooter you do the same thing and I wish I could go back and tell myself you got to put yourself out there be the friend reach out and make it a priority to put yourself out there because not that no one's coming to save you but like
[SPEAKER_05]: If no one's hitting you up, you have to take the initiative to like put yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be mad, no one's helping you out on your short film.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't helped out anybody else on their short film, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say the biggest thing people are doing wrong in terms of community building, in terms of just like connecting with people on the internet, I always say,
[SPEAKER_00]: When I'm talking to the camera, when I'm trying to connect the, you know, once that, that the record button is going and I'm looking down the lens, like stop trying to talk to thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people or hundreds of people in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to one person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like to me, that's how you build a community of a lot of people as you pick one person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine you're just face time in your boy or your girl or somebody that you really connect with and you're just like, hey,
[SPEAKER_00]: like this is what I'm going through or yourself ten years ago, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just pick one person that you're talking to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's why you guys are so successful because it's like, I can tune in to the podcast and learn some stuff and get some valuable insight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And but at the same time, I know it's just, it's just two guys fucking around being themselves and you talk to your audience as if they're just like your boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yo.
[SPEAKER_00]: this is what we're doing whether you're in your out whatever up to you it's almost like inviting a friend out like yo we're we're going to go uh... swing by the this bar to watch a game if you want to come come on by if not don't worry about it we're going to be there anyways if not thank you not your bitch that's probably not actually go back
[SPEAKER_01]: If not, you're watched.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'd love to see the stats behind it, but like I better I can't imagine it's more than five percent of people are watching like unless it's you know girl girls night watching their music videos or like you show up music videos or what other kind of YouTube videos do you think girls do that I don't know this is a real thing this is more of a guy's because we didn't call it if we would be like going out or something like some
[SPEAKER_03]: Whoever the dude was, it was in charge of the TV, he was like, you would just see like ASAP Rockies.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how the internet's fucked up my head.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm saying this is if I have friends that know, I've seen reals of like...
[SPEAKER_01]: But I know girls do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're sure dude.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
[SPEAKER_00]: I also haven't talked to a girl in eight years.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it's maybe more so like a podcast.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like a girl loves like a Alex or old podcast type shit, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I feel like, I feel like, but as a friend, you know, you're having drinks, I think YouTube's gotta be less than one percent group.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm calling that shot right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, but I'm not saying that I'm saying that it exists.
[SPEAKER_00]: It exists.
[SPEAKER_00]: The three percent women that watch this podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, what the fuck are we doing now?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, what I've heard of music videos though are different than I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm saying in terms of, I know, I'm so back.
[SPEAKER_00]: In terms of who actually watches your videos,
[SPEAKER_00]: in like a group setting or an multiple person setting.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so minimal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's normally just one person on their laptop, on their phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So talk to that one person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when it comes to building community, if you can connect to one person, that's how you'll be able to connect to so many.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead of being like, you know, you click it and you're like, hey, guys, think you're thinking about all these people that could be watching it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, just be like, who's this one person that's watching right now?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think I've actually never really heard it said like you just said it and I think it's so interesting you often think let's say your Instagram real gets like ten thousand views I'll see that number and I'll think damn if I was on stage and or in an auditorium or whatever and you see ten thousand people in front of you that's a fucking lot of people
[SPEAKER_05]: But they're not consumed.
[SPEAKER_05]: Everybody's not sitting around watching you at the same time.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's one on one.
[SPEAKER_05]: So you're talking to maybe said, ten thousand people, but you're talking to each one of them individually through a screen.
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought that that's really interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it also makes a lot easier.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you think about it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, it's way to the talking.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just like, this is one person that you're already familiar with.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you're just thinking, okay, just mean a buddy right now.
[SPEAKER_03]: It makes it so much easier because God, it's so hard when you first start out talking to the camera.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a skill.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is a skill that you pick up along the way.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's weird to talk on the barrel of a lens, but it gets so much easier over time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Would you say a coffee meet-up is like the Instagram stories of getting into getting comfortable with like a live event?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I could do what you do like you put on a full fucking yeah, yeah, but it started with like forty people in a room like and then it slowly got bigger and bigger and bigger and now it's something that's bigger than I am people be like wins the event this year even before I planned it I'm like oh shit I probably should start getting that together people are hitting you up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're going to same news
[SPEAKER_00]: People are booking flights right and like I'm when I'm booking a flight like I'm a two weeks out before I'd rather spend an extra three hundred four hundred dollars I'm like a book it the week before I go But now I'm like most most people are like I get it time off or or they just want to get the better deals on flights and they're like hit me up in September like wins the event I'm trying to buy tickets I might call fuck
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got to be, yeah, and so, but yeah, I'd say just getting out like, uh, I know, uh, Johnny out in, uh, Chicago, Johnny huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff, huff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he does like little coffee meetups in Chicago, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or it's just like twenty twenty five people and even if like I'm not going to those but I'm noticing that and like talk about someone who's doing a good job building community like he's trying to build a brand.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's trying to build lab culture and he's doing it from a way of like all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm building this brand.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know people are connecting with me online, but I'm also just going to step out and just get a small community together.
[SPEAKER_00]: People that can
[SPEAKER_00]: Drink some coffee, hang out, and then you, I look at videos of those events and it's like, ham and his buddies and everyone's rocking lab culture at everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, this is how they're in the lab.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're out of the lab, but they're gonna go back to the lab.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm surprised it's not having them at like, eleven pm.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it's like, yeah, wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got me on my head.
[SPEAKER_03]: All dark blue.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, did you guys ever go to those gaming cafes back in like, two thousand four?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, play video games.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we go and play like Halo for a buddy's birthday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, no, I was sick.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like eight of us in a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, lined up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just like, uh, it's a good time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you, I play dumb.
[SPEAKER_03]: You bring your own control.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a new your tough.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the, the kids who are rich would have their turtle beaches.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, yeah, bro, I need like, how are you hearing me, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Mine was all PC so it was all but it was a battlefront.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a nerdy adventure nerdy and also just like to I'm talking in two thousand four like okay, I'm battlefront nineteen something it was battlefield battlefields Yeah, yeah, what's more nerdy that or I used to go to the boys and girls club and compete in Yu Gio tournaments That takes the key brother
[SPEAKER_03]: I liked you, Gio, though.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had- What was that white eyes black dragon thing?
[SPEAKER_03]: Blue eyes white.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, that was my guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I had it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had the one thing guy.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like, sixteen little pieces, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that was like, I had that guy too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, got that guy so even.
[SPEAKER_03]: I got my cards, so- You had a Zodie?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy.
[SPEAKER_03]: But they were for sure fake, because the seven eleven near me just would like print them.
[SPEAKER_03]: It just came with a single card, just single card.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, I'm serious.
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember going, I was like, Dad.
[SPEAKER_03]: You gotta buy this one man.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he goes, dude, they're super expensive and I was like, Dad, this is like, you have no idea.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is gonna change my life.
[SPEAKER_05]: I remember being on eBay, like, trying to buy you geocards and the time room would be going down.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're like, how much should I bid?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, you're in a bid.
[SPEAKER_05]: What was some other, dude?
[SPEAKER_05]: The bidding was crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, like, or is that any bucks for a car?
[SPEAKER_05]: And you're like, what are we doing here?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's wild.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was a Pokemon card guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my mom hit me up, like sent me a picture of a bunch of stuff when I think I was like, I just have to call it, so like, nineteen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, not, well, yeah, she was like, here's all like, are your stuff?
[SPEAKER_00]: The yard sales coming up, like, do you need any of it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, no, I'm good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a fucking binderful Pokemon cards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I know I had some sick ass holographics in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm, you look at what they go for now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, fuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm headed a full binder of Pokemon cards for like ten bucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: The highest bidder would now if I had them all, you know, you could flip it for a few grand.
[SPEAKER_00]: A few grand.
[SPEAKER_00]: During the club.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I took a huge thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't have any cool cards though.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was like basketball, football, baseball.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had so many cards.
[SPEAKER_03]: And every time we go to the batting cage, my dad would give me a dollar and I got to pick like one.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's like the batting cage had tons of them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'd always hustle with this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as you, as long as you got to hit, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, did you didn't hit him at him?
[SPEAKER_00]: That was under two hundred.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're getting that hard today.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're getting the core.
[SPEAKER_05]: One of your some crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: I actually, I collected baseball cards and there was one year specifically that I was really into it and it was the year Mike Trout was a rookie.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I was like getting those packs and I was looking up like most expensive baseball cards and his rookie card was worth like hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I was like I collected that year.
[SPEAKER_05]: I opened up my binder.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm like I think I have that card.
[SPEAKER_05]: I didn't it was like one of the few that I didn't actually have.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I'm not not even kidding.
[SPEAKER_05]: There was wasn't my child.
[SPEAKER_05]: It was Tim Salmon.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is different.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, different angel spaces.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_05]: Nice after I press right there.
[SPEAKER_05]: But
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Could have had it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could have had it all.
[SPEAKER_05]: Could have had it all.
[SPEAKER_05]: Dude.
[SPEAKER_05]: I also have a binder of Pokemon cards.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's somewhere in like my dad's garage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: My sister and I like we possibly have a first edition.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some people listening this pod right now that are going to hit up their mom.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, yo, do I still have my Pokemon cards?
[SPEAKER_03]: That is so funny dude.
[SPEAKER_03]: You speaking of like niching deep into fucking Pokemon cards, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: You niche pretty hard in a travel.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think that people have to niche down?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think they have to?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think people have to niche down there to be successful in it?
[SPEAKER_03]: Or can you post like multiple things in a...
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we were at Connance and Mirrors event this last weekend and I was asking them specifically about YouTube and they were explaining to us that like during their phase of rocket ship growth that it was the same thing every single time right and we originally had experimented I don't know maybe like six months ago we're like we're gonna try posting different types of content in the pod
[SPEAKER_03]: But we're still babies and we're trying to grow.
[SPEAKER_03]: And from everyone we've talked to in this space, everyone's like, you kind of got to go with this, if you find a formula that works, let's say it's this podcast, like you got to beat this thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Until you have a very successful group and then you can kind of start to say, hey, there's a vlog and I noticed like Chris Williamson, you know, he's getting half a million views on these pods.
[SPEAKER_03]: It'll also post a vlog that gets like, thirty thousand or whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's not so tied to these numbers now that he's massive.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just kind of curious of like what you found.
[SPEAKER_03]: You've been at it for so long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I feel like, well, one, I think you can be your own niche, like your personality who you, if you show up enough in your own content, then people are gonna, like, give you the grace to do different things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause they're like, oh, I like this person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just wanna see what this person's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or like, if you're good at showing them behind the scenes, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can show yourself making a music video or a travel film, and then people start connecting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_00]: I do think that YouTube algorithm especially loves predictability and they love and they can just feed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm sure every algorithm does, but it's like, if it's they start becoming different, then it's like, it just throws it off.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a Gary said.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, Gary said he was like, bro, YouTube was like, hey,
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to do this and he's like they love it predictable and they love it and so that's what makes it kind of hard when I make a travel film and then a music video and then like a video about my life because then it's like it doesn't really know who to feed it to but as long as I'm showing up You know not only on YouTube but on Instagram and and on my stories and and connecting in a way that people feel like they know me then then I feel like
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, you can kind of be your own niche in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, it does help to have a niche and have like a repeatable format.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people go about, it depends on how like there's so many fucking layers of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, are you trying to make this your job?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you trying to go viral?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you trying to just get as many views as possible to like, like, that becomes a machine and you become a creator and you're a part of it and that's all right, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or are you trying to genuinely make art?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you trying to be an artist who also makes money off it?
[SPEAKER_00]: and you have to ask yourself these questions because there's no one right answer and there's no one right way to do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're someone who, at any time on YouTube, I mean, you can pop on there and have like an awesome hit, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: So I want to give you an example, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: We're low on views, like you're low on views, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: Sam Jones loan views.
[SPEAKER_03]: You got four options, okay?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do we rip, do we rip a burnout video?
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we going home office tour?
[SPEAKER_03]: Home office or are you moving to Bali for a month or
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you doing just like a sit down talk to the camera?
[SPEAKER_03]: Potentially.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like that would probably fall into the burnout.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Or are you booking like a sick trip?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Booking a trip somewhere.
[SPEAKER_05]: We have to be a try.
[SPEAKER_05]: It would have to be a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like film.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like user down.
[SPEAKER_03]: We got to get.
[SPEAKER_03]: We got to climb back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or music video.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or music video.
[SPEAKER_00]: I forgot that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter McKinnon's name in your title.
[SPEAKER_00]: Same for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many problems.
[SPEAKER_01]: That.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would probably... Death setup.
[SPEAKER_01]: I go travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to... I didn't hit with, you know, you get with my office tour videos.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last one I did just didn't hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I just questioned everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, the damn person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, this is fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: So last three were like really post straight to one at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like there this is and I post it I'm like the newest one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's the coolest office you built I think But then I'm looking at it now I'll go back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, man, maybe it's a little noisy here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could fix the function way and then like maybe I could have done this there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like I'm like dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm overthinking it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just No, yeah, I'd say
[SPEAKER_00]: genuine answer to the question if I really needed to like re-spark the channel I thought I'd go I'd make a travel film because I know they do relatively well but on top of that I think they make me feel the best and like if I can if I can combine that to combine those two where I can make something like I'm really stoked to make this and people probably
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, fuck with it then how does someone go about actually writing out these ideas because I know I know you're saying like it's not something that's manufactured like you you're willing to wait and think and have like a story come to you or see something be like that's something that I want to go tell but then how does it actually come to life?
[SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of people want to know like
[SPEAKER_03]: How, if I have this idea or I see this place and I, or I meet a person or I know there's a story to tell here, then what happens in your process?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, is there something you could tell people to get them to make something great from this, from your process?
[SPEAKER_05]: Because the world of, let's go somewhere with blue ass water is done.
[SPEAKER_05]: Film it at four K, one, twenty, and put some EDM music.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's done.
[SPEAKER_05]: So you need an actual story to tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's a couple of ways you're going about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can try to figure out your story beforehand, which I rarely, rarely do.
[SPEAKER_00]: or you can show up and there's kind of systems in place where say I'm doing classic example of people trying to break into the travel film space right it's like one first thing I do is just like tell yourself you're going to make something
[SPEAKER_00]: in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to make a YouTube film, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the first thing, because I think a lot of people will just be like, ah, like, I'll go and if something speaks to me, then I'll make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if not, then I'll just fire off thirty reels from this place I want to, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing we have to do is tell yourself, I am going to make something.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that's the biggest hurdle for eighty percent of the people because just like anything if you tell yourself you might do something there's a ninety percent chance you're not going to do it right there's a very small chance but if you're like I'm doing it Yoda said there you don't try what are you saying something there is no try only do mm-hmm sounds yeah something something something like that yeah I'm about to go to okay I agree with what you're saying though if not to cut you off but if you say
[SPEAKER_05]: I might do this, or I'm gonna try to do this.
[SPEAKER_05]: You already are giving yourself an out if some inconvenience comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if you can't find that story, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What if I don't find that?
[SPEAKER_00]: What if it didn't speak to me?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there's a story literally, and I could have made a small edit about me showing up today and doing a podcast, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a story to be told in any of life's little niche moments.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you're going to a trap, whether you're going to Iceland or whether you're just going on a little road trip in your backyard, I genuinely believe any good storyteller can make a good story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I can make a sick travel film driving through Kansas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I genuinely believe that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't just make it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe my mom from Kansas.
[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like you should challenge yourself.
[SPEAKER_03]: Go to a place that's like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love I love to see that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it without a cool car because obviously immediately I'm like vintage Bronco countryside cans it like
[SPEAKER_05]: I think your next film should be you go into Kansas.
[SPEAKER_05]: You get a Toyota Corolla.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you make a fucking sick film with a camera under a thousand dollars.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost not getting crazy.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's almost the anti-travel travel film.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that could hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I did.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm so serious.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it would be awesome.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: You should do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I was laughing though because you go like there's a story and everything.
[SPEAKER_05]: It'd be funny if except Kansas.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: You could always get really meta with it and be like, I came all the way out here.
[SPEAKER_05]: I was planning on making a film, but I just wasn't inspired to go that meta route of life.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I put the one way trip to Bali.
[SPEAKER_00]: Except, but genuine, like I made one of my DJI brand deals called the Perfect video.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, it hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got like a hundred and something thousand views.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and the whole thing was about like my original concept was me showing up and just getting like, I'm like, fuck it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to load all these as well with drone videos.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just bang or shots, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to go to the salt flats of Utah, get a sick ass car, drive it around and get some crazy drone shots.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I came back.
[SPEAKER_00]: and I put the footage in and I'm like this is just shots of a defender on a saw that like a saw flat bed for three minutes like there's nothing here of any substance besides like cool cool nice shot sick but then I did exactly what you said like I kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: took that meta self-aware approach of just like, and all honesty, this was the video I wanted to make.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there were so many different layers to this that happened to me, like the car broke down that we rented out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like mid, mid moving in a really weird place.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, full mental breakdown type shit, but I was trying to show people how sick I would.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, let me just lean into this chaos of my life right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the video hit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: people want that story and I think when it comes to like a travel film and a good travel film is show up right step on you're gonna make something you're going on your you're even a family trip to I did a family trip to Alaska right it's not cool it's not sexy it's not like I didn't have the opportunity to film crazy stuff but I'm like all right well I'm gonna make a a little film with my family right because then no matter what I'm gonna walk away with something that I'm gonna look back on in a few years
[SPEAKER_00]: and really appreciate.
[SPEAKER_00]: But on top of that, it's like, I'm gonna make something.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just filmed as much as possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had no idea what the story was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then a very, very easy thing for me to do is I find a song.
[SPEAKER_00]: obviously on artless IO, you know what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, using the link in my description for two months extra for free.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please use an art.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but genuinely, like there's a law, uh, unnecessary artless plug.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, but, you know, I make the little art boards where I have like all of the cinema, like I've been through art.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been so deep in our list, like I know every single song that's on that catalog.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I have different moods right happy inspirational sad like any mood I could possibly think of for a film I'm gonna tell like I've already I have a playlist with like ninety song options and so What I do is I identify the emotion right I go on a trip and I identify like what emotion am I trying to like evoke here?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once I've identified the emotion then I try to find a song that fits that emotion and then once I find that song then I start writing into the song as if it's like a
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a part of it like I'm like I'm making a song essentially and then I take I like write down my thoughts and then I fit it into the song as if it's like a poem You know like the the voiceovers really soft and slow at the beginning while the music's really soft and slow and then as the music builds so does my voice and then everything gets bigger and bigger and then it drops
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're here and then that's how I like right and I write with the music and I write down like what I'm feeling I find a song that fits what I'm feeling and then I start fitting it together and then to me it's just it falls into place right if that's like a family vacation I'm like I haven't been on a trip with my family and so long and to experiences places like this
[SPEAKER_00]: that are so beautiful with my family, who I only get to see so many times.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means so much to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: How privilege am I to be able to have this opportunity?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm speaking to something that feels so real to me, and then I fit it into a song.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then from there, it's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at my footage.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just plopping it in, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just putting it in the right spots that feel, and it almost gives me this freedom that it doesn't have to be this narrative storyline within the imagery because I've told such a good story of what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: The images can kind of just supplement it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's so interesting.
[SPEAKER_05]: When it comes to writing, do you have to be in a certain mindset?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, do you have things that you do where you're like, if I'm writing a piece that's more emotional about my family or about a horse trainer out in where was it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Peru.
[SPEAKER_05]: Peru.
[SPEAKER_05]: So sick.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, that's those really emotional stories.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, do you have to be in a certain mindset to write?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and no.
[SPEAKER_00]: I genuinely don't believe like you people wake up more creative than other people, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just such a firm believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think creativity is something you inherently have.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think people might be more creative because when they were brought up maybe like for some reason our parents when they were speaking to us were like like
[SPEAKER_00]: You can sing a little bit more, dance a little bit more, and other people are like, hey, do your fucking homework.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that might have created this brand, but I don't think it's an inherently human thing that you're, I'm more creative than you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's just something that you practice and something that you tell yourself and creativity on a day-to-day basis, I think it's the exact same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you have to create that space for yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: go on what like an easy thing is just a walk like the science behind it is crazy where you're like why do I feel like shit I've just been on my phone all day I haven't slept I haven't drank any water and the simple like like set your phone or put your phone on Spotify put your headphones in go for a like get two thousand steps in and then you come back and you're like what the fuck
[SPEAKER_03]: Touch some ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm good dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same, but it's so real.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ever read some art?
[SPEAKER_00]: On my absolute, once I find my song, one hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll loop that song really.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll go on walks, loop it, and I'm like trying to figure out what I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, because it's like, for me, I make music, but also make films, and I think they go so together in a way that most people don't think about, but I'm like, I'm thinking about it rhythmically.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, where can I build up this story?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where can I, and travel films are unique in that?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a narrative.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I'm not there's no rise in action and fall and and minor more just like creating an energy and a feeling because I'm telling most of my stories in like three to five minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'll listen to the same song over and over, but yeah, I'll leave the house, go on a walk, go to the beach, I live in LA, it's all and just like sit down and just have my note, I bust out my notes app.
[SPEAKER_00]: I try to get on my notebook as much as possible and write, but I just always end up, my notes app is like a shitstorm of ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've just like sitting down and be like, all right, here I go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once it clicks to it, it's for me, it just starts pouring out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have to create that space.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to wake up and be like, fuck yeah, bang your edits coming today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that never happens to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have to be like, I'm going to go on a walk and I'll start listening to some music.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then one song clicks and all of a sudden the momentum starts building on itself.
[SPEAKER_05]: You have a large note section of a bunch of ideas.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh yeah, how do you decide which idea is the next one you want to pursue?
[SPEAKER_05]: And like is do you ever have ideas that you're thinking to yourself?
[SPEAKER_05]: This is a great idea, but maybe it's not the idea that I should make.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like I said, I'm also just ADHD is fuck.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like my notes app, especially when it comes to like, reels to now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm trying to get in the reels game.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to get in the short form.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to get into TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lock myself out of my fucking TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a whole not a big thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm getting in the reels and like my real ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm finding myself, it used to be like writing now YouTube film ideas, but I have plenty, and I know a general idea, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna make like five or six a year.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think there has been kind of a re-spark and creativity of my mind, because I'm like, damn, I can make a little one-minute film, and I'm noticing now a lot of times I'm writing for a real, like a one-minute real, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of a good, I guess, practice thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you wanna make a three-four-minute video,
[SPEAKER_00]: Try to write a one minute script, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Make something for Reels or TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make something powerful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still make something with depth and that connects with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you're really fucking with it, you'll notice you're like, one minute, it's not enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need ninety seconds.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, honestly, like, this ninety seconds, you're going to two minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now all of a sudden, I'm making it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, why is this a real?
[SPEAKER_00]: This should be a YouTube video.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I found like two of my next like three YouTube videos have started like that with like, I'm like, I'm just gonna write a script for a real real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: just an easy thirty second script and then that just kind of snowballs into like fuck this kind of a bear yeah and then just kind of going from there and going yeah so like I wrote my my next one uh talking about the burnout idea it's not quite burnout but like the title of it a little clip baby but
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called, I'm not okay, but it's like a poem that I wrote.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, it's crazy to think about a poem that you write because you want to make a reel, but I'm like, how do you just make something?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, I found a song, started writing a poem, and that turned into like, from a sixty-second to ninety, or a sixty-second to ninety-second to like, almost two minutes, and I'm like, fucking, this is, I just should make a YouTube video.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the YouTuber in the fucking, I'm like, think about it, title.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not okay it's like my face and they're like what's going on with Sam and then it's like for then you click on it and it's this real like the whole idea is like that you know you obviously think of when someone says they're not okay like they're in a bad place in life but like the definition of okay is like
[SPEAKER_00]: down the middle, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we never equate it to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We never equate, okay, to being, okay, you know, you equate, oh, he's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not doing well, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And my whole thing is like, I don't wanna, there's a quote by Jimmy V, the old college basketball coach who had cancer and when he was dying, he was like, if you can live every day and you can, if you can fuck what he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you could laugh if you could laugh every day if you could cry every day and you can Think every day those three things then you've truly truly lived and my whole like the concept of my my film is just like
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not okay and I don't want to be because being okay is just going through the motions of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm sad, I want to be sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm happy, I want to be happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm not okay because I'm so many emotions and that's the whole idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that started with this, I'm going to just sit down and make a thirty second reel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And turn into this whole process where I'm writing, I'm like, that's so fucking banger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I thought of that Jimmy Vico, I'm like, I'm going to
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to tie it in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that's for me the creative process, how it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe for some people, it's just like, hey, let's start YouTube might be intimidating.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's start by making our reels a little bit more engaging.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if you want to break into YouTube, maybe just start being a little bit better of a storyteller on short form with thirty seconds or sixty second stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you'll catch yourself in like, that's not enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then then go into it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I found I did find the quote from Jimmy.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you laugh, you think in you cry, that's a full day.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's a heck of a day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and I have the speech and everything too.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so because he was like dying of cancer and he's like standing up there talking about this and like the the you know and award shows were the red light flings like you don't have enough time and he's like he's like this guy's trying to tell me I love enough time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm about to die in a couple months, but yeah, and he goes on to have this just bang over speech, but it's like that same idea where like
[SPEAKER_00]: Life isn't meant to be okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life isn't meant to be just like going to the motions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you're sad that's cool, like be sad, feel it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then maybe if you're too artists, you can make something out of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're happy, like feel it, enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like ride the ups and downs, don't ever just be okay, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're like not feeling, if you are down the middle, then like maybe try to feel grateful instead, try to feel calm, try to feel meditative.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't ever try to feel just like okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: The grateful part is it's cliche but it is truly one of the most important things you can do because things could always be worse like if you're having a shit day because something happened if you can reframe your mindset and try to be grateful like
[SPEAKER_05]: okay this happened but you know you can take it to the next level of like okay this also could have happened but it didn't if you can be grateful and and train your mind to be grateful and times when things aren't going well such a hack you said something interesting that I want to go back to though you said I love I also love like equating gratitude to being a hack
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was walking half to half, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: In life, not to go back on.
[SPEAKER_05]: But you said, dude, I wanted to say though, the amount of times me and Braden have also heard the phrase, sixty seconds just isn't enough, you know?
[SPEAKER_05]: If we had a nickel for every time, we'd be fucking rich.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is drink so much water.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sixty seconds just isn't enough.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you know?
[SPEAKER_05]: Man.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm just trying to get to thirty, you know?
[SPEAKER_05]: Alright.
[SPEAKER_03]: Real length needs to be extended.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me tell you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Alright.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you got?
[SPEAKER_03]: I have something but I need you to shut the fuck up and we can go back in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Coast is taking short form to another level.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: What's something that you've learned this last year about yourself?
[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Way to go, introspector, fuck yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm a lot more introverted than I expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I'm, uh, I've always been a people person, but, um, cause like, no one even knows a fucking definition of like, what's in it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, who, like, what's an extravert and what's an introvert?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you feel like you're an introverted extravert?
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause I used to think I was an extravert and then I'm like, man, I just want to be like at home after I'm around a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, I do enjoy that, but I only enjoy it in spurts.
[SPEAKER_05]: I bet you there's someone out there that knows the true definition of introvert version.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean it's one the best one that I've heard so yeah, I'm sure there's I bet you no one knows nobody know this one podcast suck guys just get to say whatever the fuck I want and then walk away even like I killed that shit body dude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, he's too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well though the introvert just spew some bullshit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have a podcast that I live in that ignorance.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, they let these mics be way too cheap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, expensive.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one that I heard is like when you're introverted, you get your energy from being alone and when you're extroverted, you get your energy from being with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like you leave when you're leave a group setting with a lot of people or a social setting, you leave feeling like damn, that was awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to do that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: or like, like, when you're introverted, you'll be at home and you're like, wow, I feel so rested, but when you're extroverted, you're kind of like, I need more than, and like, I've learned I really, really appreciate my space a lot more than I thought I did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've always convinced myself, like, I'm a, you know, I'm a very social person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love my friends, I love doing things, but I've noticed like on trips where in this travel creator world it's so funny, because you do this, like you're going to,
[SPEAKER_00]: creator style trip where it's like four people in a car and you all have your cameras there's no plan you're just shooting stuff to shoot it and at the end of the trip you're all like you change like here can I get your memory car and everyone gets everybody's footage but
[SPEAKER_00]: They're just chaotic and they're nonstop and it's so much fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've been on these trips for like a month straight and it's so so on and I get home and I feel so weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now it's like I've caught myself like if I'm on these trips every now and then I'm like, all right, you guys go, I'm gonna stay back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like just for a couple hours and just like
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like I might miss out on a bang or shot or two, but like I'm gonna just stay back at the campsite real quick while you guys go shoot and having that alone time for me I'm like whoa It's so so healthy that I never really thought and so like that's something I think I'm learning a lot currently
[SPEAKER_05]: the space in which you are in, I feel like has a big effect on how creative you can be and how productive you can be.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are there things that you've done going back to like the home office stuff?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are there things that you've made sure to put in place in your place in which you create or live that allows you to be more creative and think of these ideas?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's necessarily like things in my apartment as opposed to like like processes in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a big one would just be like, hey, go on a walk and listen to music.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not quite a thing that I put in my space.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like to have my space be creative.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's no.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like maybe it's my space as a whole would be the answer to that because I'm like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to live in a spot where I'm like, damn, this is cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I moved, like I said, in the last nine years, I moved eleven times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, that's insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dude, uh, no, no reverse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eleven years, I moved nine times, but still you just don't like you just get bored of your area or what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, well, some like a lot of times it's been like roommate situations, like one roommate has to leave, and I'm like, well, you know, but a big part of it is a lot of those situations I could stay in, but I love moving.
[SPEAKER_03]: I genuinely, I know I be, you're one in a million, brother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, the process of moving fucking sucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love walking into a blank canvas, which you guys are experienced, walking into a blank canvas and being like, damn, what is this going to be?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's good from like ADHD brain motherfuckers, because when you have the same thing over and over and over and over, you almost feel restless, but like walking into a new environment, you're like,
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is so cool and then checking out new coffee shops in your area and just doing like your daily walk and that being different and for me having a space that I'm like I love designing my space and like how can I make this as functional as possible for not only me, but like I have an editor, I have an assistant that comes in and like my office might like my home is my office and so I have to have it set up in a way that it can feel like my home but also be an office and this is my first set up ever, where it actually
[SPEAKER_00]: Truly feels like that like my first time I've ever lived on my own and I have two stories Flex on them and The second story is just the office space and that's where like my editor and my team we can come in and I feel is like an office Yeah, and you go downstairs and I'm like this is my home and so it's kind of set up really nicely and in a way that can hopefully allow me to be as productive as possible
[SPEAKER_05]: You've had a lot of versions of yourself.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've gone through a lot on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've brought in the community in person.
[SPEAKER_05]: So in ten years time, if you were to look back.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where do you want to have accomplished in the next ten years?
[SPEAKER_05]: I know it's kind of hard to think that far out, but you've done a lot.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've traveled to a ton of places.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've told some incredible stories.
[SPEAKER_05]: You've had your film festival for a few years now.
[SPEAKER_05]: What is kind of next for you?
[SPEAKER_05]: And if you were to look back in ten years time, I accomplished that.
[SPEAKER_05]: I was able to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you hoping to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there's a specific thing that I'm like, I accomplish that as opposed to like a... Not a feeling, but... When I'm asked this question, I give an annoying answer because people will be like, what's your five-year game plan?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: My big thing for myself is like, if I'm creating the things I love with the people I love, that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my only navigational beacon for my entire life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, there's other things now that get older.
[SPEAKER_00]: When am I gonna start family like when I'm gonna buy a home where would that might where might that be like little things like that do come into play but in terms of career wise like if I'm able to make a living as an artist as a person who like needs to express myself like if I don't make things I feel weird I feel awful so as an artist if I'm able to make things that I truly love and do that with people I truly love and make a living out of it like
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no there's no better life to live in my opinion and I've worked really really hard to to make this life for myself and I fucking love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that like now I'm at a place to where there's a bit of a surplus and like it'll come in and I'm able like eight
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't take this on, but like throwing gays to your buddies is the best feeling ever to where people hit me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't do client work.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, you know, ten to fifteen times a year, I'm handing stuff off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like sometimes depending on what it is, it's like, hey, I'll take a ten percent cut.
[SPEAKER_00]: A new hiring back is like a consultant or something on the project or sometimes it's like, hey,
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've helped me out so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's this project.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, it's just if I can keep a life where I'm, you know, making money by making things that I love with people I love, like, that's my only navigational beacon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if I keep checking it on myself, like, is this what I want to be doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is this what I want to be making?
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I in a good place making it?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if the answers ever know, I love YouTube so much and I love showing up on YouTube so much that if the answer is no with like travel films or like maybe I want to sound that like I could pivot my YouTube channel and I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't like to pivot and some people but like a good majority of like I just want to see what Sam makes Sam makes interesting things and he's a good storyteller and I think he's an honest person when it comes to his emotions and how he tells his stories
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, whatever this next chapter is, I'm rocking with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see what, and so I love the ability, like, of if you were a good storytelling, you show your own story in an authentic way, then it will give you that ability to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I just keep checking it on myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure in ten years, I'll check it on myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do I still want to, but like even like Chris Bercard, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been doing this shit for so long and he's still, he just moved to Iceland and he's still doing this shit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still like, granted he's a family man and he has a lot of other things, but like, yeah, you know, hopefully I'm still doing exactly what I'm doing and telling big stories and maybe the next step in my career would be some kind of longer form documentary speaking of Chris Bercard like the under an Arctic sky, perfect example of like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I'll ever want to go into like hour long or like hour and a half Netflix style docs, but like half hour like a mini doc like a travel mini doc where there's a good story with a good like struggle and then something happens at the end like I feel like that could be the next step where I'm taking everything I've learned from travel filmmaking, but sometimes
[SPEAKER_00]: five to ten minutes, you can't really tell you the insanely compelling story.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe like a thirty minute, like, all right, we're going to go do something crazy and then spend like six months with a team of people that I really, really loved, like make it something happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: You bring up, you bring up that you don't do client work.
[SPEAKER_00]: at what point were you able to not do client work anymore I wouldn't I wouldn't say would or been able to I made that decision before I was able to if that makes that like I made the no client decision before I technically should have made the most
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a little bit of money saved up, so it wasn't like, I had done my travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my full story, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I ran a travel production company for three years in the buddy Luke from like, twenty, seventeen to twenty, twenty, the pandemic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lavato came in and just fucked the whole world.
[SPEAKER_00]: We couldn't travel.
[SPEAKER_00]: We couldn't make anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Luke was like, I'm just gonna go hand on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I'm gonna go hand on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see what happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I started posting, and I had a little traction on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when the pandemic hit, I had like, nineteen thousand.
[SPEAKER_00]: basically all from one video from my my year, twenty-eighteen kind of making fun of travel videos.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I'm going to just give this YouTube thing a try.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the pandemic hit, you know, when the pandemic hit, everyone's like, now is your opportunity to learn skills and do shit, but everyone just played cod.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was in one of those rare people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, you know, fuck it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was lucky to have a bunch of travel footage.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had three years of traveling.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, let's just make some stuff out of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I started putting videos out and immediately like three out of my first four videos just banged.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made one called, if we all died tomorrow, a New Zealand edit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made camera man, the music video.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made a few others.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they, they were all hitting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, what was this?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're too busy, you just fuck, what are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I made from like, nineteen thousand by like, in a year or so.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had, you know, I had probably like fifteen grand saved up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the pandemic was coming around.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a little, a few clients out of Ventura watches was a big one for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had a retainer with them, making like two grand a month.
[SPEAKER_00]: And
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had a little bit and I was twenty five and so like I didn't need much to live a single dude cheap rent and then I did YouTube until about forty five fifty thousand subscribers and then I'm like
[SPEAKER_00]: After a year, twenty-twenty-one, I'm like, I really want to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I want to do YouTube.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to just think about it on the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I want to make YouTube as a living.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the moment I made that decision, I was like, rule number one, I can't take on client work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I probably had like ten grand saved up in my bank account.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had like a six month runway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if I'm actually, like, if I'm fucked, like, I won't make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, at least make it six months.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had already had an art list, shout out art list.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was pretty much my only guaranteed lock sponsor.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the time, we're paying me like, fifteen hundred dollars a video.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, dude, if I can get six, six videos or so, that's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, art list really really helped me out early in my career on that end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I just can't take on a client work.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, like, cold turkey.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't take on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if they're asking me directing, if they're asking me to shoot, it's a no.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm working on one thing and one thing only, it's videos from my YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if there is something where it's like a client that ties back into my YouTube channel, then I'll take it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like a directing piece that I can make up behind the scenes about, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then it would work out, but it was the best decision in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made the Peter McKinnon video, went from fifty thousand to ninety thousand subscribers within like my decision to be full time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, all right, from one full time, let's call that, like, let's make the Peter video.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see if this gets a little momentum, strategy worked perfectly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then from there, everything, including the plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it did work out in a sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not going to for everybody, but it was a big decision from like, all right, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave myself space to think creatively and think intentionally because YouTube was not my only thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, I would say it was just like one decision I made before I felt like I was ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I just gotta make this my thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when there was no plan B,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like plan B. Plan A is the only option.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you gotta make it happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Brother, you put your foot on the gas and never look back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it, man.
[SPEAKER_03]: This has been so fun.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I just think it goes back to what we were saying.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like if you want to do it, you can't have one foot in one foot out.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like you have to fully commit.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think a lot of people want to be doing what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_05]: they're making excuses for themselves as to why they can't do it or they have one foot in one foot out and fuck the client.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, or give yourself a game plan until like two at one point in your life is that decision going to be made.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like maybe it's not now, maybe you're not ready now, but you're like in one year, I will cold turkey cut clients, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it take to get me there?
[SPEAKER_00]: What money do I need to save up?
[SPEAKER_00]: What weekends do I have to work?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you have to be intent.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't just be like,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I'm jumping, fuck the parachute, but like, you know, if you can you can intentionally be strategic and intentionally take on risks in a way that like still is a risk, but it makes more sense.
[SPEAKER_03]: So take them while you're in twenties for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it, baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it really.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it, man.
[SPEAKER_03]: This has been such an awesome episode with Sam noon.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you're still here, please hit the subscribe button, drop us a comment.
[SPEAKER_03]: Leave us a like and we'll see you all next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always like to say two if you finish up a podcast with me just DM me on Instagram I like to see who shows up and says I thank you for coming always a good time boys go