17 minutes 31 seconds
🇬🇧 English
Speaker 1
00:03
All right, Jimmy, so we're both creators. We both make videos. I think we have
Speaker 2
00:06
a lot in common, but I also think there are a lot of big differences between our channels and our workflows and how we do things.
Speaker 3
00:12
You don't bury yourself alive? It's just a little different on my channel.
Speaker 2
00:15
So I got 20 questions for you. Let's do it. All right, first 1.
Speaker 2
00:19
What's the first app you open on your phone in the morning?
Speaker 3
00:22
I love how we just jumped right into this. Definitely Twitter.
Speaker 2
00:26
Twitter, okay.
Speaker 3
00:27
I wouldn't recommend, but that's what I do. If you're
Speaker 2
00:30
ever at like a, I don't know, a barbershop or in the back of an Uber or something like that and somebody asks you what you do, how do you answer that question?
Speaker 3
00:38
Oh, well, if I'm in the back of an Uber, I lie. I just say I work at McDonald's because I don't want them to drop me off at my house and be like, yo, I know where a YouTuber lives.
Speaker 2
00:46
Right, true. Do you have like, there's usually follow-up questions. Do You ever like say what you do and then have to sort of explain it
Speaker 3
00:52
Yeah, so I guess I typically just describe it as I like to give away money While torturing myself and occasionally torturing my friends and then just doing whatever random weird things pop in my head.
Speaker 2
01:03
That's gonna get some follow up questions. Yeah. For sure.
Speaker 2
01:05
I just say I'm a video producer and usually that sort of
Speaker 3
01:09
captures it. No, you're the video producer that decides what tech everyone in America buys. That's what you are.
Speaker 3
01:15
I mean, you're too humble to say that, but like half the time I watch his videos and I just leave and go buy stuff
Speaker 2
01:19
So we're sitting here in a part of a semi deconstructed squid game set from the video you did on top of a bunch of money
Speaker 3
01:26
You're sitting on about 200000 dollars. We haven't sent it to him yet. Casual
Speaker 2
01:30
You said before in a video
Speaker 1
01:32
that you didn't tell your parents when
Speaker 2
01:34
you started making your channel and then found it at like 10, 000 subscribers or something. Same, I didn't tell my parents about it, they found it. When they did find it, how did they react?
Speaker 2
01:44
And What's the difference between then when they found it and now when all this is going on?
Speaker 3
01:48
Well, my mom was like, oh my gosh, she's not crazy. Cause she would always think I was just talking to random people in my room or just like talking to myself when I was like recording videos. So she, she kind of had a hunch and then she's like, but why?
Speaker 3
02:02
And she's like, your grades suck. Can we like start spending more time on school and less on videos? And I was like, no, I want to spend less time on school and more time on videos. So my mom just wanted what was best for me, but it was pretty brutal at the start because I was doing bad in school and I literally would just stay up all night making YouTube videos.
Speaker 3
02:17
But then I think there was a moment where we did a brand deal that was basically more than her entire salary and that was kind of when it switched and she was like, you know what, you keep doing that. You actually, how about, can I join you? I'm like, yeah, come join us. Now she loves it obviously.
Speaker 3
02:31
You know, not because she's money hungry She just didn't want me to end up, you know working at a fast-food restaurant, which you know I mean if this didn't work out, I don't I don't know what else I would have ended up doing What's the money comfy sitting on 200 grand?
Speaker 2
02:43
I've never sat on 200 grand.
Speaker 3
02:45
So I didn't have like a put your feet over there Okay, 400 grand is that more comfy that
Speaker 2
02:51
is more don't
Speaker 3
02:52
rob us we have security
Speaker 2
02:54
Okay, so you've counted to a hundred thousand. Yes, you said PewDiePie a hundred thousand times.
Speaker 3
02:59
I did and Logan Paul hundred thousand times You completed a
Speaker 2
03:03
mile in the world's largest shoes. Yep. What's the hardest challenge you've ever done, physically speaking?
Speaker 3
03:08
The hardest challenge? Surprisingly, none of those. It was actually when I buried myself alive.
Speaker 3
03:14
That was, yeah, I buried myself alive for 50 hours. I'm sure footage on screen. It was brutal because I'll be honest, coffins aren't comfortable, and my back was hurting. And like 30 hours in, I was like, I almost got out.
Speaker 3
03:25
Like even just thinking about it, it makes me almost tear up. It was so painful on my back
Speaker 2
03:29
I feel like you should collaborate with David Blaine at some point because all of the stunts are somewhere on the borderline of how much can you actually physically tolerate,
Speaker 3
03:37
and
Speaker 2
03:38
that spectacle is just as fun.
Speaker 3
03:39
Weirdly enough, when I did that, we were in contact, and then since then we haven't talked. David, if you see this, please, Let's do something.
Speaker 2
03:46
Okay, so if you had to guess, how many cameras are on the entire campus for all of the channels and everything
Speaker 3
03:54
that you run?
Speaker 2
03:55
Ballpark, you have to put in a number.
Speaker 3
03:57
Well, so there's videos like last take hand off Lamborghini, where We put 50 people's hands on a Lamborghini and in that video We had to get like
Speaker 1
04:04
50
Speaker 3
04:04
of these so we could zoom in and monitor every hand and then if you turn the camera There's videos where we do hide-and-see sometimes with dozens of people and so they each need a handheld and then other videos We need like 50 GoPros. I mean, we're probably up to like 250, 300 cameras, but I mean.
Speaker 2
04:20
I was gonna guess it was higher. I was gonna guess like 5.
Speaker 3
04:22
I'm trying to be conservative, but yeah, it's crazy. But it's not like we're just buying them to buy them. It's just like certain videos literally need like 50 to 60 cameras at certain times.
Speaker 3
04:32
I just like, we just buy cameras and they sit here and then when we need them we just grab them.
Speaker 2
04:36
You know? That's the way
Speaker 3
04:37
to go. That's the way
Speaker 2
04:37
to go.
Speaker 3
04:38
Yeah, I, personally I don't like like super high quality cameras. I prefer it to look a little more amateur. So I've been using like these G7X's and like average stuff for like
Speaker 2
04:46
a very long time. 24 or 30 FPS?
Speaker 3
04:49
A
Speaker 1
04:50
30.
Speaker 2
04:50
Okay, there it is.
Speaker 3
04:51
Yeah, 24 is like, your career's fading. Like you're, you know, you're trying to get into movies and stuff like that, that never works. Kidding, I hope you don't do 24.
Speaker 3
05:00
I do 30. Okay. Whew.
Speaker 2
05:02
Okay, so I read somewhere, I think you said you've gone through a dictionary and would just like pick random words
Speaker 3
05:07
to see
Speaker 2
05:08
if you can find good video ideas in there.
Speaker 3
05:09
It works actually better than you would think.
Speaker 2
05:11
You still do that?
Speaker 3
05:12
Yeah, yeah. So basically, it's not just a dictionary. It's you, You wanna take in inspiration and then see what pops in your head.
Speaker 3
05:17
So say random words, any word. Something you don't think I will think you're gonna say. Mannequins. Mannequins, okay, well there's mannequins behind us.
Speaker 3
05:25
Okay, so can a million mannequins stop a car? Can 10, 000 mannequins stop a tank, right? Or what happens, I hate to make them all the same But what if you put a million mannequins on train tracks and try to hit it with the train what happens? You
Speaker 2
05:39
know seems like something you could pull off. I the hard part is like what makes it a good like Compelling video because exactly people will be curious, but what makes it really good is a challenge.
Speaker 3
05:49
Well and that's the thing but the point is you take in random inspiration you see what pops in your head you write them down and then usually 1 out of every hundred is good and so that's why I like to flip through the dictionary.
Speaker 2
05:59
All right so you know how Spotify does that rap thing every year where they'll show you like all the artists and artists you listen to the most? If YouTube did a rap for you, who would be the most viewed channels that you watch? Marques Brownlee.
Speaker 2
06:12
Marques Brownlee. Oh, that's nice, but who else?
Speaker 3
06:15
No, no, no, no, um, hmm. I'm gonna need like 10 seconds to think. Take your time.
Speaker 2
06:20
You have to build your own Rapt. This is something I think they should actually do, but.
Speaker 3
06:23
Agreed, I mean, it's obvious. I don't know why they don't. YouTube, you're screwing up.
Speaker 3
06:26
I mean, 90% of people watching this won't even know these channels, but I love Wendover Production, Polymatter, like people that just make videos like, it sounds dumb, but like, why global shipping is easier than manufacturing domestically, or things like that. I like- That sort
Speaker 2
06:42
of edgy, splainer type video.
Speaker 3
06:43
Yeah, exactly. Or Mark Rover, Veritasium. I love learning things, because it's, I'm not helping myself here, but I don't like when I spend a couple hours on YouTube and I don't really walk away with much so I try to like really watch and click on videos that teach me stuff so when I do go on YouTube it's like all videos that I learn.
Speaker 2
07:00
Alright so I remember when the first YouTube channel hit a million subscribers.
Speaker 3
07:04
Fred, right?
Speaker 2
07:05
It was a huge deal. It was Fred.
Speaker 3
07:06
I was gonna ask if
Speaker 2
07:06
you knew, but of course you knew.
Speaker 3
07:07
Yeah.
Speaker 2
07:08
And then I remember the first 1 hit 10 million.
Speaker 3
07:09
I don't know that 1. Ray, Ray, Ray William Johnson? Smosh.
Speaker 2
07:12
Oh, that's right. Yeah. 10 million.
Speaker 2
07:15
And then obviously PewDiePie got to 100 million and it's just crazy scale and just keeps getting bigger and bigger. You've said before your goal is to hit 100 million subscribers. I feel like you have a pretty good shot at making that happen. I mean, we're
Speaker 3
07:26
basically there. You're on
Speaker 2
07:27
the way. How do you set goals for yourself as a creator for your channel? Assuming you do hit 100 million, do you set another goal?
Speaker 3
07:34
What is that goal? I got it. I love this question.
Speaker 3
07:36
So back in the day, my goals used to be very subscriber based or view based, but 1 thing I've learned, and I think you've probably learned this as well, is like Everything you want as a YouTube creator, every freaking goal you wanna hit, whether it be subscribers, you wanna hit a million or 10 million or whatever, will come if you just make the best videos possible. So my goal, and this is what it will be till the day I die, is to make the best YouTube videos possible. And so If my hypothetical goal was 300 million subscribers in 10 years, that will happen if I just make the best videos possible. If my goal is to get 50 million views a video, that will happen if I just make the best video.
Speaker 3
08:09
Whatever it is, just focus on making the best videos possible and all these other vanity, arbitrary metrics will just fall into play. I don't mean that in an arrogant way, but that's just kind of like the mindset you have to have. Like, go hard and believe in yourself, you know?
Speaker 2
08:25
Okay, so you've had a lot of interesting ideas for videos. Yes. I wonder how many of them, You've probably said this before, but how many of them do you scrap After you started them before they're done.
Speaker 3
08:35
Oh gosh. Um, so Probably 1 out of every 4 videos we end up getting scrapped because like I'll give you an example, right? Climbing a wall with plungers seems like a cool idea And then you get hundreds of plungers, you get the strongest plungers in the world, you hire engineers and you realize you can't climb a wall of plungers.
Speaker 3
08:53
And so then it gets scrapped, or we made the world's largest cookie and we were gonna try to eat it, but then you get in the weeds and you're like, wait a minute, eating that much sugar is probably not good for you. Yeah, and so then it's like, ah, kill it. And so it's 1 of those things where, you know, I'm 23, I haven't done a lot of these things, and so while I'm doing it, I learn stuff, and I'm like, oh, not what I thought.
Speaker 2
09:13
Okay, this is a quick 1. Why do you have the world's largest iPhone and I don't.
Speaker 3
09:17
Um, I don't know. I just saw it on eBay. Looked cool.
Speaker 2
09:20
Is it work?
Speaker 3
09:21
It does. It works. It works.
Speaker 3
09:23
I'm so glad this isn't my town. I thought you just doxed me. Comment down below if you think he should switch his normal phone to the world's largest iPhone for a month and vlog it. I think that would be such a good video.
Speaker 2
09:34
A month. A month. Give me a week.
Speaker 2
09:37
I'll do a week.
Speaker 3
09:37
2 weeks, take it or leave it. Right if he doesn't.
Speaker 2
09:39
So here's 1. How do you decide what to say yes to? Because At
Speaker 3
09:45
a certain
Speaker 2
09:45
point, you have the ability, if you want, to pick up the phone and make any video you want happen. I mean, that's being built for the most insane ideas I've ever seen. How do you decide?
Speaker 2
09:56
Because most of it is notes, right? How do you decide on the yes?
Speaker 3
09:59
Yeah, well, So video specifically, it's pretty simple. What makes the best video possible? I mean, like I hate to keep coming back to this point, but that's all that matters.
Speaker 3
10:09
What makes the best video possible? What will people enjoy the most? What's something original, unique, blah, blah, blah, You know, that they've never seen before and that's it's kind of really it. Yeah.
Speaker 3
10:19
Yeah. I mean like it's not money I don't care to make money. I literally look at this. You think this is profitable on a YouTube channel?
Speaker 3
10:25
It's not money It's not really time or effort. It's really just whatever's the best video. That's what I want to do And I think as long as that's your standard, like everything else just falls into place as a YouTuber.
Speaker 2
10:36
So I feel like the Squid Game's video was sort of a long time in the making. Yeah. Almost like a masterpiece.
Speaker 3
10:42
Which by the way, if you hear background noise, it's because they're tearing down the sets of Squid Game. We're literally in the middle of it right now. We're in 1 of the Squid Game rooms as they're tearing down the other ones.
Speaker 2
10:51
I wanted to move around, it's my fault. But, do you have a new Grail video that you wanna make? I do.
Speaker 2
10:58
Some super high-end production that you've been dreaming of making that you can't wait
Speaker 3
11:02
to get. Yeah, so I basically I want to take everything I learned from Squid Game and apply it to this other idea But if I told you I legit would have to kill you.
Speaker 2
11:09
Okay, tell me and I'll bleep
Speaker 3
11:10
it out. Okay, so basically I want to do S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t S**t
Speaker 2
11:20
S**t Instant viral hit, no question about it.
Speaker 3
11:22
Do you think it could be bigger than Squid Game though? I think it could.
Speaker 2
11:27
Yeah, it depends on when
Speaker 3
11:28
you do it, but yes.
Speaker 2
11:33
I mean, I'm a reviewer, but I gotta ask you for a little review. Can you review YouTube, give me a rating of the whole platform on a scale from 1 to
Speaker 1
11:43
10?
Speaker 3
11:44
I mean, I'm incredibly biased. A hundred out of 10, because it changed my life and gave me everything I wanted.
Speaker 2
11:50
Well see, that's dangerous, because YouTube needs a little bit of competition, needs a little bit of like,
Speaker 3
11:55
reason to
Speaker 2
11:55
get it.
Speaker 3
11:55
I don't know, I'm pretty happy. I think things are fine. YouTube gets rid
Speaker 2
11:58
of the dislike counter on all videos. They make decisions sometimes that are a little bit head scratchers. Do you feel like, well first of all, what do you think of the dislike counter disappearing?
Speaker 3
12:07
See that's where it's 1 of those things where I don't know if there's a right answer because I do know that people were targeting certain groups of people or races of people and bombing them with dislikes or using it to Abuse people and there are worse services where you could buy a bunch So in a way it was being used to silence people and harassment, but there are also good ways It's a good signal to show videos crappy or there's misinformation And so I don't know I I lean towards I think dislikes aren't that good overall, but I also see why they had to get rid of it, cause, you know, it's 1 of those tough things where I think no matter what there's not really a right answer. Here's 1. What do
Speaker 2
12:42
you miss about old YouTube?
Speaker 3
12:45
Old YouTube. There's a
Speaker 2
12:46
lot of relics, a lot of old throwbacks and stuff.
Speaker 3
12:48
I do miss that back in the day you could be a little bit more edgy. I do. Yeah, I think like, you know, it would be cool to see someone see if like, um, I don't know, like, a million Legos could like stop a bear for the cow or something like that.
Speaker 3
13:02
Like, or I feel like videos like that, like that aren't necessarily bad, but just because it has a gun, like I don't feel like, would you as
Speaker 2
13:07
well. The times have changed, yeah, for sure. Exactly. I kind of, there's also like UI things, like I look at a screenshot of old YouTube, and I immediately like think of the videos I was watching back then.
Speaker 2
13:16
I don't know if you have that like, oh, this was the era of the Ray William Johnson.
Speaker 3
13:20
Same, yeah, Ray William Johnson, Call of Duty commentaries, like Woody's camera tag and all those guys. We're running out of places. We're in
Speaker 2
13:28
front of a dumpster.
Speaker 3
13:29
Yeah, for this next 1, we're joined by this dumpster here.
Speaker 2
13:32
So there's a lot of space inside and outside for a lot of people working on a lot of different things. Yep. How many people are on the team currently?
Speaker 2
13:42
Do you have to ballpark something like that?
Speaker 3
13:43
I mean, that's top secret information. We'll just say that it's been going up quite a bit. I mean, obviously we went from videos back in the day where it was just me and Chris and we would just react to stuff to now, you know, with Squid Game, we had to build 8 full Hollywood level production sets.
Speaker 3
13:59
And I mean, On that video alone, we probably had 300 different people working on it, like at least 150 just contractors alone building stuff, 20 editors,
Speaker 1
14:08
20
Speaker 3
14:09
plus camera people, stuff like that, so I mean, they're getting pretty huge.
Speaker 2
14:14
Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 3
14:16
But thankfully, we have this dumpster to film in front of.
Speaker 2
14:19
Alright in 30 seconds or less we've had Team Trees. It was an incredible success. It's still going.
Speaker 2
14:26
Why should the internet care about Team Seas?
Speaker 3
14:28
Well I mean if you care about the ocean you should care about Team Seas because basically for every dollar we raise the Ocean Conservancy and the Ocean Cleanup have agreed to remove 1 pound of trash or plastic from the ocean. And we're trying to remove 30 million pounds of trash or plastic from the ocean before the end of the year. I know I sound like a salesman, but I don't know, why would you not care?
Speaker 2
14:47
It's a pretty great pitch though.
Speaker 3
14:48
Yeah, exactly. But also at the same time, like it's not the end all be all. It's not gonna fix all our issues.
Speaker 3
14:53
I think it's just a way to show that, you know, the younger generation cares and we wanna make a change and like, you know, These little things add up, right? Yes, this 1 thing might not make a huge dent, but if a hundred of them happen and inspires people to build new technology or to use metal, whatever, water bottles and stuff, plastic water bottles, it all adds up. So it's really just about making a little dent and inspiring the younger generation to do good. Perfect.
Speaker 2
15:19
It's not necessarily about the 30 million pounds. It's about the inspiration. It's about the positive net influence of people coming together and demonstrating something powerful.
Speaker 3
15:28
So yeah. And just showing that people care, honestly.
Speaker 2
15:31
Honest thoughts on YouTube Rewind. Should they bring it back? Is it retired forever?
Speaker 2
15:37
How do you feel about Rewind?
Speaker 3
15:38
Definitely retired forever. Should not bring it back. The thing is, YouTube's massive, right?
Speaker 3
15:43
Like, dude, there's a giant community that speaks Spanish, there's a giant community, and even like Southeast Asia, and like there's so many different communities on YouTube that you have never heard of, none of them have ever heard of because we speak English, we don't speak their language. Like I think back in the day it was perfect because it was, you know, when Smosh hit 10 million there wasn't many channels with 10 million. It was a different era. But I think YouTube's gotten so ginormous that it is impossible.
Speaker 3
16:06
I think you should do a rewind for tech. I think, whatever, someone in the beauty community should do a rewind for the beauty community. And I think that's what should happen. It should definitely just get passed down to the creators to represent their own communities because they know it better than anyone.
Speaker 2
16:20
All right, Jimmy, last question. Oh, boy. What's the best advice you've ever gotten?
Speaker 3
16:25
The best advice? Mm-hmm. He just hit me.
Speaker 3
16:27
I thought we were going to switch places. I think 1 thing that I like that helped me is You're you're crazy until you're successful then you're a genius and I think for a lot of people when you know you're grinding as a small channel people think you're too obsessed You're a weirdo Stop only making videos like get alive be realistic You're you know I mean people will convince you you're out of your mind for wanting to do this But then once you're successful, they're like yo your drive your tenacity was great, but it's like yeah Well, where was that back then you know I didn't get that when I was a small channel and so I think you're crazy until you're successful then you're a genius
Speaker 2
17:07
and with it keep it up if you're if you're a creator watching this which I feel like there's gonna be some of them out there like if you want to take any inspiration from this video that's kind of part of it number 1 make videos that you'd want to watch. That's for me. Number 2, make the best videos you possibly can.
Speaker 2
17:21
Eventually that's a great thing to aspire to anyway. And then keep at it. Thanks for watching. Catch you guys later.
Speaker 3
17:28
Can we do this? Peace. Oh I beat him.
Speaker 2
17:30
Dang it.
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