Meet The $800,000/YR Dropout Exposing Apple’s Secrets | Sara Dietschy

Sarah Dichi is a YouTuber and entrepreneur with over 870,000 subscribers, an extremely interesting story, and a rather unorthodox rise to success. In this episode, we discuss how she makes 800K with her unique YouTube strategy and talk about her startup that has raised over a4 million and is launching in the next couple of months. And here's a hint, there's a lot more than meets the eye. I'm going through some drama with him right now. So, if this is something you're interested in and you want to see more like it, make sure to subscribe because we post new episodes every single Sunday and they all have to do with making money, personal finance, building up a business, and just becoming wealthier. Uh, did I miss anything, Jack? I think that's great. Let's get on to the episode. All right, enjoy. But before we get into that, we want to thank today's sponsor, Mumu. 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They also give you access to so many other really cool features that allow you to take your trading game to a whole new level, like their real time level two trading data for the US stock market, which displays up to 60 levels of bids and asks, which also gives you real-time quotes and helps you gain a deeper understanding of the market. So get up to 10 free stocks with Mumu today using that link down below in the description. Again guys, the link is down below in the description to get up to 10 free stocks with Mumu. It also really helps support the podcast. Thank you so much, Mumu. And back to the podcast. Unpart them. Oh, Jack. Are you serious? Oh, I got it on camera. This is not the first glass I've broken apart. Oh my gosh. Out of control. What's up? My name is Sarah Dichi. Rhymes with Peach. This is the iced coffee hour. And you guys have made $251,000. Close. $257,000. Is that the closest? I think that might Is that the closest? I think so. That's either the closest or the second closest, right? Really not that hard. All you really have to do is watch the last episode and add. Yeah. Like if that that's all you got to do. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, welcome. Thank you so much for coming here. You are a college dropout tech YouTuber making money. Love that you making products. Yeah. Led with college dropout cuz it's very timely with the news today, but um so I've been thinking about it but haven't thought about it in a while. Oh, that's a good question. Did you because you went to college for a little bit. Did you have any debt? No. So, that's actually what led to the dropping out because I had a scholarship. Okay. So, I had an electrical engineering scholarship. I went to UTA if there's any uh Texans out there. And I did that for about 2 and a half years, but it's very hard to maintain a 3.5 GPA when you're studying doubly. And so, I lost it. I also hated electrical engineering, so I was like, I want to try something new. I went to Belmont randomly because I like Nashville. um changed my major to computer computer science. Didn't have a scholarship anymore. One semester was $15,000 it and I had to like pay that out of pocket. So I had no money after one semester and I was like this is stupid. I'm not learning anything. Video thing was working out and then I dropped out. So yeah, no debt. Would it have changed knowing that $10,000 would have been forgiven? That would be another semester. No, that wouldn't have that wouldn't have pushed you over the edge to be like, I'm going to continue a little bit longer. And I will say I feel like I was one of those people who once this started to be a conversation about debt relief, there was a little part of me of like, man, I like altered my entire life because I didn't want to go into debt. So, it doesn't seem fair. But at the same time, I'm like, I wouldn't be where I was today without that. And I'm like, I feel like everyone would be better off without the crippling debt. So now I'm like, it'd be great if in a perfect world it didn't affect other things, you know. Um, but you know, inflation is a hot topic right now, so who knows what that would do. But I just hate everything to do with college. I graduated top 10%. I got good grades. I knew I had a little money in college, but I knew it wasn't going to pay for four years. So I was like, I need dual in high school so I can get a scholarship. And so I was always like ticking those boxes and you know go home to Christmas and be like hey grandma and grandpa electrical engineering degree doing good. Um so I did feel that pressure but it got to a point where it was so overwhelming. I loved making videos. It was just a matter of time. How can I make this my job? So it took me like three years of doing it on the side to figure it out and then I dropped out with only 4,000 YouTube subscribers. How much were you making at the time from YouTube? It wasn't a thing. So I I had clients with a agency in Nashville. So I basically linked up with a local photographer who I did like a docu series on um that got like a thousand views, you know. He had some already existing clients at like a creative agency. He had no idea how to do video. But he was kind of like, "Hey, this girl knows what she's doing. So if I take my highpaying clients and say, hey, we do video now." Um looking back, it was a terrible deal for me. I would do all of the work and he'd pay me like 500 bucks or 1,000 bucks and I would be like shooting, editing, doing everything and he would just be on set being like, "Looks good." But it paid my rent. You know, my rent in Nashville is like 600 bucks. So, so you're doing contract work at the time, just to get this clear. Yes. Yes. And it was one of those things where I was posting YouTube every single week. I was obsessed with it. I was like, I have to make this my job. And I was doing so many things. I was going to like all the conferences. And there was a conference called Adobe Max in LA and I had a a friend's cousin who we had gone to LA and visited and so it was like a free place to stay and so I was like okay they had college pricing for the conference and I was like that's 300 bucks so I can figure that out. Um and I have a free place to stay and I went there made a lot of cool connections u met someone at Adobe learned about this thing called the Adobe Creative Residency. So, basically in a span of like six months, I dropped out of college, was doing like the side work, was going ham on YouTube with only 4,000 subscribers. Um, but then I kind of, long story short, connected some dots, got this thing called the Adobe Creative Residency where they pay you for a year to just be creative and share the process along the way. And literally when I was in the interviews, the final interviews for that, I made my viral video about Casey Neistat. And so, all of a sudden, I had like a essentially a contract for a year that just paid me a salary. and I went from 4,000 subscribers to 100,000 subscribers in the span of 2 days. And I was like, "Okay, it's go time." And yeah, the rest is history. So, it was 2016. What was the Casey Neistat video? Yes. So, it was like a parody on his vlog. So, he had just hit I think a million subscribers. It was in I guess somewhat the beginning days. And I was obsessed with his videos like everyone else. And I uh I was just a Nashville and I was making videos every week. So, I was like to, you know, this this week's video I'm going to make a parody and it went super viral. So, it's like a 4-minute video of me talking, you know, being quirky like Casey does. I don't know how to describe it. Um, it's very cringe. Watching it back now, it is so cringe. Um, but yeah, he shouted it out in his video the next day and I was literally I was sitting at in Nashville on a on a job and I think I it was like interviews for this thing called the Bible be. Have you heard of that? No. It's where it's where people get together and answer questions about the Bible and it's like a game show. And so I had I got this job where I was doing interviews with everyone from the Bible be. And I was sitting there and like my phone was blowing up. I was going on. Um and all I saw was a comment from Casey and he said, "OMG," when the video had like 500 views and I was like, "Huh?" And so I just like I was like shaking, you know, during the interview. Um, and yeah, the next day you posted the video and then I posted another video that was like 0 to 40,000 subscribers in one day and then that second video blew up and then I started daily vlogging that was a mess and then I came back around to tech. Yeah. So, was your growth because Casey Neistat shouted it out or because the algorithm was pushing the video? So, definitely Casey shouted me out. I was like one of his first big shout outs. So there and it was like peak Casey where of course he didn't have as many subscribers as he does now but the you know million people that were watching him were obsessed for people who found Casey in 2015 2016 you're just obsessed right so if he tells you to go watch someone it was it was instant it was crazy but I will say and I guess maybe this is the one practical thing people can get from this I had been posting videos since 2011 and I had just come off like a second season of Creative Spaces TV. It was like my docu series on creative people and um we I had a whole series of that to post right after he shouted me out. So I like had that. I had all these tech reviews. Um so I had a huge back catalog of content with like a thousand views for people to watch. Um so I think that helped. People saw my channel. They're like, "Oh, she actually makes good stuff." They stayed. And yeah, rest. How much do you make from that? So the Casey video, yeah, I actually have no idea. Should I check? Yeah, let's see. I didn't even AdSense is definitely not my main driver. Um, let's see. Is there like data from 2016? I can't find it. Oh gosh. So, you click uh so estimated revenue and then you go Oh, Jack, your your finger is already hover hovering over where it is. Sorry, I clicked the wrong one. Okay, so lifetime. So, you made and I I'm cool just to screenshot this one. Okay. Oh, I thought it was going to be way more. So, it made $1,793.64 off of how many views? G. Yeah. Let me let me tell you. I think 2.1 2.1 million. Yeah. 2.1 million. 2.1 million. That is crazy. Yeah. To be fair, I don't think I had monetization turned on in the beginning. There you go. Because I was I was of this belief that I just want people to watch my videos and I don't want something distracting them from watching my video. So, I actually I didn't turn on monetization until I think a little bit later. Um, but I obviously turned it on later, but yeah. Okay. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty cool. Yeah. How did you keep that audience though? Mhm. Yes. Okay. It was hard because I had, you know, 100k people come show up and I wasn't making parodies. I think a lot of people were like, "Oh, okay. You should start doing this with everyone. you should make a parody of every single YouTuber. But I'm like, that is not me. And so I started vlogging because everyone was daily vlogging. It almost killed me. But so I would like daily vlog. I had a new season of Creative Spaces TV I was working on. And in 2016, uh kind of like film making YouTube wasn't a thing yet, but later on I was kind of uh like camera gear and all this stuff, you know, became really hot. So, I was eventually able to kind of ride that wave in 2017, but 2016 was a lot of like ups and downs. Um, I was going everywhere with Adobe. I was going to these conferences. I was meeting a ton of people, interviewing people, but in terms of views, it like wasn't that much of a priority. Um, as crazy as that sounds, it was more like, okay, how can I do this Adobe Creative Residency and make cool stuff along the way? So, um, it would be weird. I would post a vlog that would get like 15k views and then I would post like something kind of techy and those occasionally popped off if I you know would talk about I got a new MacBook or something like that and that's what later informed me okay go back to tech because I was posting videos in 2011 2012 just unboxing things and that's when I kind of was like daily vlogging is killing you stop daily vlogging and just make good stuff so so yeah it was it was it was hard 27 2017 2018 is where I kind of got more of my footing. What tech did you find did the best? It was okay. What's crazy is I feel like only recently I have a pulse on it. I don't have the most like stable YouTube career. Um it has it's been just like super random I feel like. But Apple stuff, you know, did really well. Um luckily it's easy to talk about Apple stuff because I dig it. But I would say the MacBook was a big driver of my channel. In 2016, they did a huge redesign of the butterfly keyboard, the touch bar. I don't know if you guys like have one of those MacBooks, but it was terrible. And so, I had just built like my entire Yeah, I kind of liked it. I'm not going to lie to anyone who likes that thing. I thought I was disappointed when a new laptop came in without it. You see, this is Sarah. I just want to chime in here. I'm a techie. You're a techie. They're talking about the touch bar, but they don't know about the tragedy that is the keyboard. Um, and and that's what really that's what really progressed it to be this key. Yes, Jack. So, remember when I was planning out my videos and the keys would fall off the floor and then put it back on because of the touch bar. Oh, okay. Well, no. Okay. So, they completely redesigned the keyboard to this butterfly keyboard. So, in order to make the uh laptop super super thin, they completely redesigned it and it was the worst keyboard that has ever been on a laptop ever. And that was just like the beginning of the those issues on the computer. So all of a sudden I found myself being like, I've been a Mac user my entire life. This is the worst laptop I've ever used. So that is kind of what started my trajectory back into tech cuz I was racking in like really good views just trashing on the MacBook Pro. So that is so funny. I just remember there's countless times I've sat next to Graham while he's typing on his keyboard and his fingers would be a little sticky or something and he would push down and it flick off and it shoot across the Yeah. Sometimes it would just keep sticking to his fingers and he's like you still have his fingers and put him back down and like push it on. I still use it from time to time. Yeah. So the new the new MacBooks uh they they started making uh changes in 2019 and then the big redesign uh came last year and they're amazing now. They brought back the ports. were fantastic. So, I have all three. So, that was the one where the keys fell off. Then, I got the one with the touch bar. I like the touch bar one afterwards. And then I got the newest one as of like 6 months ago. I like how has the SD reader. Me, too. It's so cool to be able to plug it in and it's so fast, too. The charging is fant. I love the charging. Be at five. Plug it in and it's like at 50 within 20 minutes. Yes. So, it's been a journey with the MacBook. They've officially arrived. It's good again. Um, but yeah, it took me a minute to get to that answer, but I would definitely say the MacBook. Me complaining about how terrible the MacBook Pro was was kind of like, okay, tech works. I'm going to steer a little bit away from my life because I started to get in the vlog thing where I was like, let's do something cool for the day. So, I had like entertainment for the vlog, but this was pre David Dori and all that stuff. So, it wasn't doing crazy things and buying people cars, you know, you were just trying to make an exciting story out of your day. So, um, but it still got to me. Um, so yeah, there there were a lot of like sleepless nights 2016, 2017. So, I'm glad I found something a little bit more sustainable. Give us some more tech that you dislike. Oh. Oh, goodness. How long do we have? A lot. Okay. So, I'm going to go the other way first cuz I just made a video that was saying, I am going to pause reviews because we've actually arrived in a in a place where tech has gotten pretty good. The MacBook, they fixed all the things because, you know, us YouTubers over here just screaming like, "Hey, this is terrible." Laptops, like Windows, PCs, I mean, they've gotten so good that it's one of those things that people make up drama for things. With the new M2 MacBook Air, it's a great redesign of the MacBook Air, but something that happened is the 256 gig version of the M2 MacBook Air, the SSD is slower, and they they didn't disclose that on the website. So the big drama with that computer is basically oh my gosh like the speeds are a third of if you just bought the 512 version. So that's an example of an actual real problem. But basically people tech YouTubers will take that and make like 10 videos about that. And so I was just feeling so fatigued. Sounds like the stock market. Yeah. He loves we're down a percent today. The market crashed. But I will say with financial markets and things every day you really do have something a little bit new in the news. At least you can talk about them. There might be something with with tech. The video talking about 10 minutes we'll we'll discuss something. With tech you know you have one product that comes out and then it's just you know it starts a cycle for months and months. So I can imagine the titles if I did the end of the MacBook. Well, okay. You know what you would do, Gra? The MacBook is over again. So, it's funny. It's funny that you say that because I'm I'm trying to do a big pivot again away from reviews and more, okay, let's take if something is topical, let's take it and extrapolate it out to something like a bigger theme or something like, you know, video essays are really big right now. So, I did kind of that vibe of a video and the title was this is the end of an era for Apple, which is kind of the vibe of what you just said. That's great. Um, and that's the end of the era that's bad, though. So, we're end we're ending a bad era, going into a good era. Got it. And so, that was interesting for me because it was all of a sudden a video that I enjoyed making and it wasn't linked to something that had just come out because the tech world is crazy. something will come out and you're like fighting everyone who can get out their video first. And that's complicated even more with an embargo schedule. So certain tech creators will get certain tech before everyone else does and then they can release their videos at a certain time and it becomes a rat race and it's really exhausting. And I became kind of a I just felt like I was working for all of these companies without getting paid if that makes sense. Hey, we'll send you this. Hey, we'll send you that. Okay. And then what what date do I have to release it? And you know, they're not even paying you. But it's because you have the privilege of getting hands-on with this tech before anyone else. You feel obligated to make things. Now I'm like, okay, I'll do that for maybe two or three companies, but I got to stop accepting everything because then you're thinking about what the companies are thinking. You're not thinking about what makes a good video, what makes a good title thumbnail. And so now I'm actually kind of taking a step back and being like, "Okay, what would actually be a good title thumbnail?" And it's working. Shocker. Let's say they send you something and you say something negative. Are they going to are they going to come back and say, "Hey, no, let's not give her anything anymore." It's a fine line. It's a fine line. And that's and that is why. So, oh man, why am I talking about it? Okay. So tech YouTube is interesting because because of that what you're bringing up every other year there's a new phase of YouTubers who come out of the the woodworks and just start like slamming tech YouTubers being like this person isn't honest cuz they do embargo videos and they'll just on people for forever but then they just disappear because that's not good for growing you know a following that sticks around. Um, but it's it's a balance. So, people know now and people have gotten way more honest about it too, tech YouTubers included. So, it's just a conversation you have with your audience. Like I, you know, I tell people there's a very clear line between if something's sponsored, if something's embargoed, if someone sent something to me. And that's also the reason why I'm just it's either sponsored or it's a Apple iPhone or it's something that's so crazy that I can't get my hands on. I can't get my hands on it without the company's help if that makes sense. So I I've there are more, you know, distinct lines drawn and you have to do that as a creator. Some of it I've seen that they can't keep what they're sent like maybe it's so new, right? They have to give it back. Yes. And a lot of the tech is loans. So it's not like you're, you know, of course you're going to be somewhat cognizant of the fact that, you know, a company sent you this, so you're not going to completely on it. Um, but at the same time, we're not keeping this tech. So So what could be improved with the tech today? Oh goodness. Let's start with the iPhone. What are the problems with the iPhone? The problems with the iPhone files. I hate files on the iPhone. Oh yeah. Downloading. Anytime you download something, it disappears. You can never find that thing. It's gone. Yeah, I will say some of the So, I feel like the hardware is fine. I could totally see them coming out with a better telephoto camera. Um, I could see them making the lot uh notch I just combined two words, the notch uh less noticeable. It's rumored that they're going to do the punch hole thing. So, they're going to get rid of the notch. Um, so it'll just be instead of that notch, it'll be a punch hole camera. Um, but but we'll see. It's right around the corner. And so I feel like the hardware is good since I use the iPad a lot. Some of the new iPad OS updates have me a little worried because they're trying to have this balance between is your iPad a computer or is it an iPad, you know? So they just released a feature where you have actual window management now where um you know you don't just have split view with apps, but you can kind of open up four apps at one time and and switch in between them. It's called Stage Manager and that's them trying to make the iPad a computer, but it's just using it in the beta. It's not there yet. So, for me, I think the only interesting thing is like the iPad and the software and where that's going to go. Um, but again, to my other point, I'm kind of just like I'm good. And that's why as like a tech YouTuber, I'm trying to find more interesting stories to tell because I don't know. I feel like I'm good. Can I Can I share my interesting qualms about the iPhone? and I think you you will relate to me. Uh before I do that, I just want to mention uh Lexar, official card sponsor of the podcast, but of you, Alex. They're my official sponsor and uh I record the podcast. So anyway, um I think so for those of you that don't know, um I was an Apple certified technician many many years ago and my biggest qual um is repairability and right to repair. Um, and I think that a lot of people don't realize this, but like your charge port, your back when there used to be a headphone jack, whatever, they all used to be replaceable and they still are replaceable. Um, but Apple will refuse to provide those parts. And so, let's say you break your charger, um, even though it's on a separate board, um, which is a very common problem, they'll just like you, and I'm sure a lot of people have experienced it, you go into Apple and they're like, "We can't fix it. you need to we'll buy your phone for this much and you need to upgrade or they'll give you a refurbished product. Um and then that creates, you know, a mountain of junk in another country. Um what do you think about that? O okay. So that has been the biggest talking point the past couple years. So there's a great YouTube channel by a guy of the name of Lewis Rossman who covers a lot of this and it has become such a talking point that Apple has actually done things to address it. Uh, granted, maybe not in the most perfect way, but recently they basically announced a self-rep program where they will literally send you all of the gear that it takes to replace a battery or to replace um certain aspects of your phone. It's not everything. So, they'll send you the manual, they'll send you the official gear that it takes to do do the self-repair yourself um for, you know, a certain low fee. So, they are doing things to remedy that. Um, so it is cool to see that they are starting that. Um, because yeah, you're you're right. It's it can be an issue and they lock down, you know, computers to to make them harder to repair. Um, but but yeah, they they are taking steps, so hopefully they can continue with that. What do you think of Apple coming out with a car? Oh gosh, it concerns me how it's just a like a it seems like they're just rotating engineers out of there. I feel like a lot of important people have been a part of the project and then they just leave. So I don't I I it's one of those things that Apple doesn't do things unless they can do them right. So I can see them working on it for the next 10 years and not releasing it until 10 years. This is the same thing with the VR headset. I feel like they do not want to release their headset until it's perfect, until it's more lightweight than the Oculus, until people can actually have it on for hours at a time and not get a headache. Until they can get the resolution right. So, it's one of those things where it's like, I would love to see an Apple car, but we might be waiting like another 5 to 10 years, you know, or who knows if it'll it come out, you know, if they can't do it right, they're not going to release it. They've poured a lot of money into it. That's one of the thing I'm not a fan of with the Oculus is that uh I love the the theater mode where it feels like you're in a movie theater, but there's still something odd about the screen where it's like you see the pixels. It doesn't quite look like a TV. Exactly. And Yeah. And that's something that's, you know, I got the opportunity to interview the Zuck, which was fun. And, you know, that's something that he said is it's like all about iterations. Like resolution will get better, the headsets will get lightweight. Um, they have, you know, a lot of different uh, you know, prototypes with all those things, but it's just like the tech isn't quite there yet. Um, but I will say I was so I judged the Oculus hard. I was like, this is so stupid. I'm never like who is going to do this? But when I gave it another shot with a Quest 2, I became obsessed for like a week and then I set it down and never used it again. But I can totally see I'm like this is crazy. Like this is crazy. Playing putt putt with your friends and it feels like they're right there. And so yeah, it just has to get more lightweight. It has to resolution has to What was that like meeting Mark Zuckerberg? It was extremely nerve-wracking. Like we had like a pre-call which helped. So, I feel like I was more nervous about that pre-all. Um, but it was it was really cool. I mean, I know it's kind of cliche to say this, but it's like when you're talking to someone, you're like, "Oh, they're just a human like me, right?" But it's like all the memes about him being a robot and an alien, you know, like it gets in your head, but he's he's actually normal. He's very normal, you know? I mean, should I say normal? Because he's not normal. What's How is he weird then? Or not weird, just not. Sorry, I should say I mean, you know, if you It was a very isolated, you know, we had the pre-all and then the moment we got on that Zoom, the interview started because I only had 25 minutes. So, it was I had, you know, my list of questions. Um, but I think the probably the most like like part where I was so nervous was like towards the end he said something where I was like I need a follow-up to that question because that doesn't seem you know it was my it was my op it was my time to actually be like ask a smart question because we started talking about creators and he's talking about monetization and I feel like one thing Facebook and Instagram do really bad is they just take all the money. They put ads in your stories. They put ads everywhere, but they don't share with creators the way YouTube does. And so he mentioned, you know, in the VR world, we're doing these things like ticketed events and blah blah blah, but that is still the creator has to bring the audience and then Facebook is taking that cut. What about all the ads that are going to be in our metaverse? Aren't you going to like do a profit share? So, um I think I I didn't really get So, I got that question in at the very end, um which I wanted to actually hear. So, it was cool to be able to ask the man actually in charge of that stuff, an actual question you have. Um, but but yeah, interviews like that are just you're nervous in the beginning and you start talking and it's fine. What did he say? Well, he he he skirted the question, which was a little disappointing. Um, and he didn't say he just went back to the model of creators can sell merch, creators can hold events, they can do all these things. And that was just a little disappointing to hear because again that is creators bringing their audience and then Facebook taking a cut. It's like you guys got to do the work that YouTube, you know, has. And if you want creators to stay on your platform and all the drama that's happening with Instagram right now, you have to make it a platform where people can not just like earn a living but also feel like they have a shot at getting views and likes and engagement. So yeah. How did you even get an interview with Mark Zuckerberg? Yeah. Oh man, I think so. I had a podcast that creative life that lasted for about like 125 episodes. So I had a lot of like serendipity going for me and I'm sure you guys have seen it with ice coffee hour. When you start interviewing people, you know, you're having like deep conversations with people. You're building a ton of relationships and I'm I'm sure that then puts in people's heads that you know are doing cool things like, "Oh, I should hit up Graeme for that. I should hit up Jack for that." And so um that was just like a serendipity thing. Previously for my podcast I had interviewed um like a Facebook executive about the Rayban stories. And so I got linked with um you know people at Facebook. One of the people who worked with this guy Bos who's now the CTO um previously worked at Full Screen where I I used to be a part of Full Screen and my manager used to work there. And so it was one of those things where just like you know like oh hey I haven't seen you in a while and you like kind of like strike up you know just like a casual relationship and then when an opportunity comes up where like hey Mark is doing a couple interviews with Sarah be down um they hit us up and I was one of only like three interviews. I think it was like me Gary Vee and um another podcast that he did. So so yeah it it was impressive pretty pretty cool. So, I've interviewed a lot of great people. Um, but the podcast just became a little too much booking guests and I'm I'm sure you guys like know the stress of running a podcast. Um, but I do miss it talking to people. So, this is my new thing that I want to do. I just want to go on other people's podcasts and talk. It's a lot easier if you just show up and hey, you're done. Exactly. What do you think of the new Instagram algorithm? It's just showing videos now, which chances are maybe we could clip this as a video as an example of uh you know, Instagram's pushing videos right now. And it's hilarious. I mean, my story views got cut into a third, like overnight, which is great. Luckily, most of my business is like YouTube and then Twitter, too. Um, I just did it Kickstarter where I only posted to Twitter. It was only Twitter and Instagram, and we raised like $150,000 before I even posted my YouTube video, which is crazy. Um, but Instagram I don't have a super big connection with just because I I I feel like I saw it coming because Facebook did the thing where they ruined your organic reach. Facebook bought Instagram. Where do you think Instagram's going to go? So, I totally understand people's frustration and I wish it could be different. Um, luckily I'm I don't know. I'll sit there and watch reals forever. It's Tik Tok content. It's funny, you know? I get sucked into like, oh, that'd be a fun sound to use. So, you know, I think I if I needed to, I could make a pivot into reals, but um yeah, I could definitely understand how it's fudging over photographers, and I totally get their frustration. But I heard the new thing that all you have to do now is turn the picture into a video. Yeah, people are posting their I see Horoszi doing this all the time. He tweets something, screenshots the tweet, and then post it as a real. Oh, a real. Does that work? I will say I think the more important issue is monetization. what we were talking about earlier. The problem with Tik Tok, the problem with Instagram is everything is being condensed into this short form crap sometimes. I'm sorry. And then there is no payoff. I know YouTube shorts channels that pull in hundreds of millions of views per month, but they can only sell two t-shirts, you know? I know Tik Tockers like that. At the end of the day, people are just like giving these platforms free engagement. They're giving these platforms all of their time, but they're not getting anything in return, which is concerning. Tell us about this Kickstarter you did. Okay. You raised what is it? So, we're day three. So, Lab22, it's a premium desk accessory brand. It all started with um I'm obsessed with my iPad, right? But you can Oh gosh, I just clicked on one of my videos. Um but a lot of people start using iPads as like second screens to computers and they just leave iPads up and use them as a computer. But I'm like, guys, it's an iPad. Use it as an iPad. So, the iPad stand is great because it's super flexible. You can bring it down to note-taking position and it's just really solid. It's like a chunk of metal. Um, and so it's just super sturdy. You know, a lot of people just have plastic junk from Amazon. Um, and then we also have a phone stand and a headphone stand. And so we just launched on Kickstarter 3 days ago and last time I checked it was around 220,000 um that we raised. So, it's been like a whirlwind. Um it has been like when all of your validation is if your video is like 10 out of 10 or one out of 10 to have something outside of that to be like oh my gosh like people do you know still care about me or watch my stuff but also oh I made a product that actually people want which has been like extremely validating but um it's been over a year in the making. Uh so so yeah. So how much is that going to cost to make? What are you going to sell it for? How much you going to make? So, the stand is a really great price right now. It's about $119. Um, $19. Yes. Yeah. Um, phone stand is a little bit more pricey. Headphone stand um is, let's see, phone stand I think is $149. I I should know this, but there's dual charging. So, it's Mag Safe. So, Mags safe compatible phones. Uh, it basically magnetizes. It holds your phone. It charges it at the same time. And then down below you can put AirPods or tree wireless charging. Um, and then the headphone stand. So making stuff is very hard right now. That's why it took us over a year. We were supposed to launch in February, but as you can, you know, supply chain shortages and stuff like that. It's taken a long time. Things have gotten so expensive to make. And so if you do want to make something that isn't just a hunk of plastic, it it costs, you know, and it cost a ton to ship it back and then the taxes. And I I think something interesting if people don't know about this that makes products even more expensive if you're making them overseas is that Trump tariff. Um so when that came into play, I don't know the exact percentage, but it adds almost like like 20 $25 onto our products because we're shipping them from overseas um just from that tariff alone. So there's just so many things you have to worry about. So, I'm a little tired, but I'm excited because, you know, it got an amazing response. So, it's been it's been fun to make something in the physical because I'm so used to just videos. So, and I'm sure you guys had, you know, had it with a coffee, I feel like, right? I'm sure that was a cool process. Yeah. Yeah. It was definitely more work than I expected. Yeah, it always is. Right. I'll tease it here, Jack. We're coming out with a what? Oh, it's here. You want to hear it? Yeah. Okay. We are coming out with tea. Oh, that is so great. That is so great. What kind? A little bit. Macy's a tea. You know what? Macy's Macy's. But you know what? The one comment that I got the most often on those uh coffee videos where come out with the tea, it's been do the pods. Pods are really expensive. But pods and tea, the tea is much better profit margins. Uh it's cheaper to ship. There's a lot of benefits with tea. Didn't you buy a condo? You renovated it. You flipped it. What happened with that? Okay, guys. I got to take a sip of water to prepare for this. Just do a loud sip. Like a Yeah. Alex, add some like very dramatic sipping is contagious. Like yawning. I don't believe that at all. I don't believe that at all. Drinking water. Yeah. When when I saw you went to go drink some water, I wanted to. I thought I thought you're doing it. No, I was doing it for the sip. The sip sound. It's contagious. Just like your I don't think so. You know what? I'm thirsty now. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. As soon as you see someone drink their water, you want to drink water. Pay attention to it now. So funny. Please do. That's interesting. Yeah. You know what? You got to do that though. You got to do that at a restaurant and look around at a table and see if one person picks up the drink to other people. Guarantee you. Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah. Okay, guys. The cont. All right. Keep with your story. Keep with Tell the rest of the story. The condo. So, okay. We moved from New York to Texas. I'm from Texas originally. I lived in New York for 5 to 6 years. Did the YouTube thing, the city life, I loved it. Co brought us back cuz, you know, it was kind of crazy. You good, bro? Oh, yeah. Continue with the story. Go on. Get with the story. Jack is having issues with water today. I know. I'm really having issues. What happened with it? I went to go drink another time and I was like, and then I forgot. Yeah. All right. just keep yeah continue with the um so you know we were you know I watch Graham Stefen videos I got to I got to buy something right I thought we weren't prepared for a single family home yet though uh cuz my fiance and I we have lived in apartments you know our entire time we've been together for 5 years. So I was like do we want to mow a yard? Do we you know and like we like cool stuff. We like being on top of coffee shops and restaurants. We we kind of want New York living but in Texas. So, we found a really cool place that I'm not going to name. Um, that was super cool. Loft vibes concrete floors. I meat Kevin was angry at me because I I actually took up hardwood floors and did polished concrete cuz I wanted Yeah, I like it too. Okay, thank you. People roasted me for that because I spent 10k on that. But it was like repeat um 1,900. Oh, terrible. Yeah. So, we did that. We redid the kitchen. But again, this was peak rena time when everyone was doing it. And so, finding a contractor, all of those things, it just took way longer than we thought it was going to. But we closed on this condo February of 2021. I don't know if you guys remember what was happening in Texas during this time, but it was the iconic winter storm that came through. Oh, the ice stom. The ice stom. It wre havoc. Yes. And so we were still stuck in New York. We couldn't get a flight to Texas. You know, we had just closed this condo. We were moving. So, we were stuck in a hotel for a week while we were just like hearing all of this crazy stuff happening. The building flooded. So, we had just closed on the condo and like half the building flood. So, we were like, is our is our condo ruined? What is going on? And so, luckily the water damage went like right up to our place. So, um, all of the hallways, like, so the hallways in the actual building, the drywall had to get completely stripped. This might be a stupid question. Wouldn't it have been better for your unit to be flooded because the insurance company would then have to pay out a pretty hefty amount, right? So, and you can pay and put that into the renovations. I'll get to that because things escalate from here. Hallways are completely trash because all the pipes burst and so they ripped up all the carpet. All the drywall had to be redone. and it was chaos. So, we finally move into our condo. We're like, "Okay, thank goodness we weren't flooded, but oh my gosh, the hallways look terrible. The building is like kind of in shambles. There's a new problem every day. Like the AC is breaking." So, right off the bat, we're having to like replace the water heater. We're having to replace our fridge. It got zapped with all the power outages and stuff. Um, so many things instantly went wrong. And then we get slapped with a special assessment for the building because all because all of the uh hallways and stuff got flooded and you know the insurance wasn't covering everything. But so let's say now we're entering a time where I'm talking about a hypothetical condo. Okay. So this is just a story time about a hypothetical condo that's not mine because I don't know if I can get in trouble for this. But so a condo like ours. Yeah. So, this is where the chaos starts. People were not stoked on the special assessment fee because guess how much it was. So, there's 200 units or one unit, 1,900 ft², a two-bedroom one. Guess how much our fee was? Minus 15 grand. 17K. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, luckily because we had insurance, it covered like 15k of that. But we didn't know that cuz the insurance process for that was so chaotic. All of a sudden, the condo starts rolling in other things where they want to do renovations. Like they want to, okay, guys, you know, the carpets need to be replaced, so why don't we just like renovate the entire building? So, things start to get super complicated. People get angry. Residents decide to sue the HOA board. It's getting super messy. Now, they're under litigation. Like, like 9 months passes, nothing is getting done. So, you walk in the hallways and it looks like you're in a construction zone for that entire time. And this was like a $500,000 condo, you know, in DFW. It was a nice place. Like, we shouldn't be living in a construction zone. Everyone's doing construction, so it's so noisy all the time. Like, people's individual units. And so, the lawsuit thing happens and I'm going to meetings. It is chaos. People are screaming at each other. Like, a guy on the board was like was like, "You effing you need to sit down like it got heated. These are all 50 to 70 year old, you know, people. We're like the youngest people there. It's so not our crowd. It's it's just exhausting. And so the lawsuit basically halts all renovations and it was a year and a half and just problem after problem. I mean, I I would be here all day if I was describing more issues, more payments, like more special assessments. And so, it got to a point, you know, interest rates were about to hike. And I was just like, if we want to get out of this, cuz I'm so stressed out, my main job needs to just be making videos, not worrying about, you know, drama with the HOA. Like, right now would be the time to do it. We just renovated. It looks nice. So, we just couldn't handle it. We sold it. Um, we basically got most of our down payment back, but yeah, the kitchen renovation, that's down the hole. Uh, you know, the money I spent on that. So, So, how much did you lose on that after fees and lost? Yeah. Um, yeah, probably lost a solid 40 50k. Really? Money though if you bought it way back then. Do you think a buyer wants to go in when the building's in shambles and buy a renovated unit that they have to deal with? I figured that they would just assume like, ah, you know, it's going to No, no, you have to disclose this stuff, too. So, that's that's the thing, you know, we had to disclose the drama and so it helped that people are trying to sell their units without the special assessment paid. So, luckily luckily we were be able to say it's paid for and they started like uh giving us the designs. Uh so, it was helpful to show, oh, hey, we actually have a direction now. So, it I am so burnt. I don't think we're renting a townhouse now and I love it. There's no noise upstairs, you know? So I'm like I'm renting until a house just calls our name. So is a special assessment just like a fee that a HOA can slap on? Oh, at any time. At any time. And that that is why I will never be a part of an HOA ever. But I thought that they'd take your monthly payment in order to get like the joints walls or whatever like all the stuff I thought was covered. And that's what a lot of the questions of the residents were. What happens to the $800 a month we pay? Where is that money? $800 a month. Yeah. And that's okay. And here's the thing. It didn't start that way. So, by the time we were leaving, the HOA had been hiked up for a third time, too. What was it when you joined? Um 600. The thing is HOAs are audited. So, you have financial statements dating back to the very beginning. And so, usually if there's anything that stands out from that, it it's pinpointed. Unless they're siphoning money from that, it's unusual. There's more to the story though. Okay. So yeah, we had a management company that was managing it and we were under the impression that there were reserve funds. Turns out there was not because the management the management was mingling funds with so the way this building was there's a ton of shops and uh like shops and restaurants down below. It's a different board for the bottom than it is for the condos that are up top. the management company managed both things and those boards are separate and the fund should be separate. What they were doing is just adding all the funds together every month and so if the restaurant across the street had issues or stuff like that, money we would be taken from, you know, the condos to fix that. So it was a mess. So, in the span of that time, not only was all of that being revealed, but in that span, they fired them because, yeah, they did an audit and figured out there was no reserve money left. It was highly mismanaged. Um, and they fired them and then it was almost like starting at zero. And I was like, I would have stayed because I I really love the building if I had faith in the HOA board. But these people again are like picture 70year-old white dude works at Loheed Martin making missiles Texan. It was like a replica of that for like 200 people. And so it's just very like old school and like I was in you know like I don't want to I don't want to make fun of uh it was just a certain type of person and they they don't want your help. it's my my way or the highway. And I was like, this is not a productive environment. This is this is I just need out. Someone can come in and just live their life because there's nice amenities. There was a rooftop pool for people who don't care about this stuff. It's going to be a great life. It'll make for a great rental, but I'm very involved and it just ruined my life. So, what about your failed businesses and startups besides a failed renovation? What else? I know. So many failures. That's why I'm so glad I had this like Kickstarter thing and there's something actually working because it's been 2020 hit and of course like many others you're like what am I doing with my life? Can I make YouTube videos for my entire life? If you are a fan of business content, you kind of get in your head like I need to be the entrepreneur. I need to like have rental units and do all these things. And so I kind of like got in that mindset and I was just like okay let's start stuff. And I just kind of like did a ton of stuff. the point of all this it it was other people's ideas coming to me and me being like oh that sounds cool yeah let me hop on that and that didn't work out and like the moment I do something that like was my idea I was able to pull in a really talented team I was like oh it worked cool so this is the hack right but so basically the first thing that I tried to do was one of my buddies in New York City came to me and was like yo look at this software it's super cool and it was super cool it was content creation where It would take a pillar piece of content like this podcast and just automatically break up into micro content. Um, which obviously is super valuable, but it was all AI. It was all automatic. And the problem with that is again it was his thing. He's the coder and I was like, "Oh, this is amazing. Yeah, let me come on and I can obviously be the marketing and content and all of that brand building." But when you're not working on the product day in day out, it's just and you don't you can't have as much say as that person. So, you know, it's going to take different directions. And ultimately, it was a very hard problem to solve because it was all based on transcription. And when you base an app that automatically crops and adds sound effects and does clip splitting and all this stuff on the foundation of a transcript, it gets really messy because the moment you go in and change one word, you like break that time stamp, if that makes sense. I don't think I'm explaining it very well, but if you've heard of that that service, I think it's called Descript or it's where you edit via transcript. you like edit a video by editing text. Yeah, I saw somebody do an ad for that. It seemed really interesting. Yeah. So, they're doing it probably the best, but I've seen that they're running into the problem as well because if you go in and add uh add something um say, oh, I didn't say, you know, I said two words instead of one word and it's in a block of a sentence, like how do you assign those timestamps to those new two words? So when I say a sentence like this, when you read a transcript, you have time stamps of so is 1 second, two milliseconds. The next word is that. But if you go in and edit it, the user does. How do you decide what those new time stamps are? It it can get very complicated, but you can say, okay, there's two seconds, so you just split evenly. But we were just running into a lot of technical issues. Video is hard with AI. And we were like on year two. It still wasn't a full product. We would get people to test it out, but it wasn't sticky. Content creators have such a flow that, and this is something I've learned, too, is if you have to convince someone to use it, it's not a good product, right? And then I tried to open up a photo video rental studio in Dallas, Texas, and it's actually still going. I filmed my Kickstarter video there, but I did it with a business partner, and it was so much work. When you have five different people coming in every single day, it's essentially like you have five clients a day that you have to be at their back and call. And I was like, I could make one YouTube video and make one brand deal or I could spend every day, every month for like half of that, if that makes sense. And so ultimately, it just made more sense for the business partner to take it over because he was closer to it. He understands it more. And but again, the main theme was like people who I love coming up to me, hey, I have this awesome idea. Me being like, yeah, that sounds great. And like, oh, software. People are selling software companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. and me just kind of being naive and almost selfish in a way of wanting that big payout when I'm not even worried about like, hey, is this something that people need? And so that's and so I've kind of just like given up on that dream, which has been extremely healthy for me because obviously like you know Gary Vee is my homie. Love him. But when you can get so sucked into that content and that's not you, it can actually be kind of bad. Cuz I'm not the person who wants a bajillion employees. I do very well on my own. I'll bring in freelancers. And so that's what I've discovered. And it's it's just it's so much better now. And ironically, you know, I don't want to jinx it, but it just seems like it's even working better. I might end up at, you know, granted a fraction of my main goal, but being more successful. And now I'm like true to myself. I'm not trying to live someone else's dream. I don't want to be CEO founder of, you know, everyone like wants to put that in their bio, but it's like I don't want employees too much be a CEO. It's like that's the thing. You can be a CEO of like nothing CEO. Yeah, Jack's a CEO. CEO. Like it's it's lost its meaning back in the old days. CEO used to be like Yeah. a big thing. Oh man, CEO. Now it's just like, oh yeah, he's another ecom guy. So funny funny story about that. When I first started my wedding business, I didn't want people like mainly my clients um to be like, "Oh, he's the CEO." So on my business card, instead of putting uh CEO, I think I put either event specialist or like wedding coordinator, but I like own the company. So it was like but I feel like it it it made it more professional to be honest. Like wedding analyst would be Yeah. So wedding executive. I feel like that sounds pretty. So yeah, I think and especially for people watching this show, I think the most important thing for you is to figure out just what do you actually want? Not everyone can have a hundred employees and run, you know, a big tech company cuz, you know, we all have this. If you're a creator, you at any point you're like, "Oh, my YouTube channel can just die, right?" You always have that in the back of your brain. So the thought is I have to build something sustainable outside of me so I can just go retire on a beach and you know not have to worry about YouTube. That's like everyone's dream, right? But like that's not the most practical thing, right? And so you start focusing your energy on this big payout that is so you just have to be so in it and if you don't know how to code, if you don't know, you know, it's just it's a much harder thing than people um think. So what type of successful do you want to be? Yeah, I think yeah that's the question I've been asking. I just want to make videos and that's and that's what I came back to. It took me four years of this journey of like what is the next step and now I'm like I want to make videos. I want to make I don't want to feel like I have I am stuck to reviews, right? So they'll be about tech but I like filming and editing. So I want to be creative. I just want to make stuff. I don't want full-time employees. That's my biggest revelation from all of this. Um, and I want to make stuff. So, you know, if people are digging like, you know, cool new tech stands, I need it in my life, they need it in theirs, and that's cool. So, if there's opportunities like that that come about, um, that I can create, that's what I'm going to do. And if it's not a crazy $100 million payoff, that's okay. I think that's what I realized, too. I don't need a ton of That sounds great. I don't need that much crazy money. No, no, no. I'm just saying of it. Yeah. Oh, what? For once, normally people come on and they're like, I'm with you. We need to We need to You need to hire out. You need to do this. You need to do this. Sarah's right here. Graham, this does not sound like Yeah. Are you kidding me? No. When I started cutting everything, remember that, Jack? About a month ago, I went through and I cut probably 80% of what I was doing. And now all I focus on the main channel, this second channel, that's it. And that's changed your perspective towards all this. No $100 million payout. No. No. Because I realized it to get that $100 million payout, you have to put that same attention and focus and passion as I'm putting in my videos in a new business. I'm not interested in that. I have no desire to have employees, build a big business, put my time in that. Hell yeah, Graham. Yeah. Yes. No, I really I hate the responsibility. I realize I do best when it's just me. I'm responsible for myself. Um obviously I mean having a great team. So between like Alex and Jack, I I I would go crazy with the third person. I think it's just like this is it. I have my lawyers. I have um you know I have freelancers that I use but it's very a lot of my frustration is someone not delivering and then I stew. I write notes and I'm like okay I'm going to tell them that they did this wrong but then I never share it because I feel bad. So I am so bad at management managing people and I'm like well you don't have to do that. So I'm now making less and ironically my views are better because I'm making less videos. I'm spending more time on the title and thumbnail and the concept and making them good and they're doing better. That's something that that you know we went and saw Mr. Beast and that's something that I learned from him is that he's so focused on just making the best video for for the main channel and that's it. Everything else he has hundreds of employees and you know but he's found other people that he really tries to delegate but his focus is just main channel and the way he works is like if if he doesn't make the best videos everything else fails. So, he just needs to make the best videos. Everything else will fall into place. And for me, it's like I want to keep making the videos cuz that's where I'm the happiest. Taking anything off of that is just like at least for now, no desire. And I will say people underestimate how much time it takes to just make a YouTube video. And so with all of these different side projects that I was doing, I was I was like, I I literally do not have the time for this. So, I think people think, "Oh, if I can make a, you know, if I can be a successful YouTuber, then I will take that and then make a company from it." But it's like if you're not really good at operations and delegating, you're just not going to have the time. And so, that's why I've refocused on like everything has to be it has to do 100% with my YouTube channel. And that's how I think ultimately things, you know, will be successful. And I don't It's been really tough. Alex has dealt with me in terms of delegating. Alex knows how how difficult that Are you still editing the main channel videos? I am. Yeah. Good. Good job. Yeah. So, I have two questions here. Um I So, I'm a huge fan of your content and I remember when I was making the vlogs, you commented on one of the vlogs. So, as somebody who's at least watched one of the vlogs, this family. Yeah. What did you think? Yeah. What did you think about them? And um tell Graham that he's hated for cutting them. Okay. So, I love them, but I think I am okay because I watch a lot of your stuff. I ironically I watch this to family in the ice coffee hour, but I think what a lot of people have said is like they find you through main channel videos, but once you're versed on finance, you're like, you're good. So, you move to the other stuff. And I love the vlogs because I felt like I was getting to know you guys more. Um, but I will say you guys were saying, "Oh, this is an opportunity to reach beyond your audience." when I saw it more of a play to go deeper with your already existing audience. So, I feel like if those expectations are maybe, you know, aligned a little bit more, maybe it would be more sustainable and fun. But, um, cuz I can understand how if you want to reach beyond your audience, the vlogs probably aren't going to be the way to do it. Cuz like I I was like watching every single one because I was like, "Oh, what's Macy up to? What's up?" Did you like them more in the beginning or near the end? So, the end was when I was posting three times a week iPhone Yeah, I think I watch all of them. Um, if you had a preference, I'm trying to give me some subjects that because I've slept posted once a week with Alex editing through the high edits and then we went to three times a week with me just filming What was Yeah. What was the like cuz I remember the iPhone you would like sit on the couch and just talk about and posting a video and stuff like that and that was cool. I liked both. Like I like the mix. Well, I found that the iPhone did significantly better. Subscribers were up. we're losing subscribers posting once a week. I was like, this is unacceptable and I'm spending my time doing this and I'm worried about title thumbnail and it's taking. So then I just went iPhone, stopped caring. It did so well. Funny enough, I did my aquarium tour started off as a 10 out of 10 by far. And that aquarium tour, by the way, was just a last minute. Macy was like coming home. Yeah, it was all one take. Macy was coming home in 20 minutes. I'm like, I have some time. Let me share the aquarium. One take. post it up and it's a like it bombs. Now it's a two. It's one of it's almost the best performing video out of the last 10 that I Something I'm noticing with YouTube and this is why I don't get so depressed when I instantly hit like a eight out of 10 or something is if you actually make a good video, it now has a long tail. So I'm noticing I do studio tours and stuff and so I did a studio tour of Austin Evans place. It didn't do that great but I was confident in the thumbnail and title so I just didn't change it. I was like, if this is going to do well, it'll do well. It took a month, but now it's like, you know, 120, 130. Um, and I've been noticing like the past, I would say 3 to 6 months, YouTube is taking more time to find an audience for your video sometimes. You know, you'll have a flop, but um I feel like that has been super encouraging for me because it really does feel like something's different. I have a question for you. I actually have, and this is something I've been wondering, why do you go the route of like percentages instead of like hiring uh people as like a salary or maybe like a retainer? It seems like you say, "Oh, if you do this, you get a certain percentage." Correct. That's just Jack. Okay. Okay. Okay. That was in the very beginning, the podcast made nothing. Like Jack was I knew Jack was going to be at a loss for quite some time with no guarantee of ever making anything back. And in the beginning, I'm like, "Yeah, sure, let's do that." Never thought anything of it. And uh yeah, I think we were like maybe eight to 10 episodes in. I was kind of getting tired of it, but I didn't want to let Jack down already. It's good incentive. He put in so much work and I didn't want to tell him like, "Hey man, I'm like not feeling it. I don't feel like filming this." So, I kept doing it. I'm really glad. But, uh yeah. So, yeah, it would have been would have been uh you know, more advantageous for me financially probably just to give a salary. But you know what? Uh Jack really put in so much. Yeah. Really, it wouldn't be the same without the way it turned out because it then gets you stoked, right? Because you feel you're a part of it. I I mean, here's the thing. I don't like to see myself as someone that's like purely financially motivated because I know that there are plenty of other cash grabs around me I could easily be capitalizing on. But at the same point, it's like having a pretty strong financial incentive for the podcast to do well definitely made me work a lot harder like you know to the point of exhaustion and then passed and then some like especially when we were really in that growth phase like six to six months to like year. Yeah, definitely. Speaking of money, uh how much money are you making? Yeah. Okay. Okay. If you if you don't if you don't mind. When I first reached out to Graham, I was like I Yeah. I am um the past few years when everyone was making so much money in 2020 2021. I was just like freaking out cuz we were we were in the middle of Manhattan and of course the world was going crazy. Um, I had some just weird I all of a sudden got awful awful migraines that I'm still trying to figure out. But just some weird health stuff happened and then we're moving to Texas and so so much life happened that on 2019 I was like on this trajectory of like you know I was I was doing good. I would say from 2016 to 2019, you know, I started with maybe in 2016 I was making 100k including that Adobe salary plus, you know, AdSense and little stuff I can't share that. Okay. Yeah. Um, but it's a salary. Everything else, it's a liveable it's a liveable salary. Somebody else is 60. So the adobe All right. Um, got to work backwards. Jackie, you ruined it. And then each year I was just building building. Luckily because I was doing video work with an agency before um brand deals came really naturally for me. So all of a sudden when I was like oh I can put my spin on a you know branded video that's exciting because I was so used to making videos only for brands. So, uh, naturally I just started doing brand deals and, you know, I'm brand friendly, so it just worked out. And I would say from there, like I was kind of compounding, probably like doubling every year. 2019 was my best year ever where if if you take out um lawyer fees, management fees, I probably grossed around 800K. Wow. But that was me going ham. I was at conferences every month. I was giving talks. I was doing like six to seven videos a month. Almost all of them were branded. Um well those numbers probably aren't perfect but um and you know I was like doing stuff and so 2019 was really really good and like I just got engaged. Um start of 2020 everything's looking up and then 2020 happened and I had a rough time with 2020. So, I've kind of been like building back the blocks. Um, now why' you have a rough time in 22 besides the mas was it just the migration? Well, it was well moving. It was New York first of all. We were so freaked out, you know, because CO first hit Manhattan, New York and so dealing with that was crazy. Um, other things that I don't super want to mention, but just life stuff. Life stuff. And then moving to Texas and the condo was insane. Like I don't know if I can emphasize how much that stressed me out. And I think it it kind of proved to me that I don't know if I ever actually want to own a house. Um I know I'm telling Graham Stefen that but yeah, it's like I get so stressed out by little things. So when something breaks at our townhouse, I just like text the person and it's amazing and I love that. And so the condo too, um, there was noise every day. It just made making things so difficult. Um, so I've been slowly building back up and again I was trying all those businesses. My focus was super split and so my income went back to like early days basically. And now now I'm like building back up. Um, but now I'm more focused on long-term projects. I don't need In the beginning I was like how do you get back to 2019, Sarah? Hire these people. hire the full-time people and scale and do all this. And when I hated my life doing that, I was like, I don't need 800k a year. What do you actually need? I need money for Door Dash. I need money to fly first class because I, you know, I'm a homebody. I hang out with my cat and like to be comfortable. I hate flying. And that's about it. So, I'm like, if you make a few, you know, a few six figures a year, your life is going to be exactly how you like to live it. And so I think I've kind of just let go of, you know, needing to one up and it I've found my place in a much peaceful peaceful place. I have hit a million net worth so many times and gone under it just cuz condo and a lawsuit and um so many things. So yeah, I've that's been fun. But but yeah, so I would say I I I'm floating around that area as general net worth, but I've never shared that. So there you go. Sarah Peachy exclusive the iced coffee are I just had a question I was going to ask I completely forgot it. You got so drowned in the numbers, man. They were so good. So yeah. Well, because I wanted to come to this podcast and because people are always like numbers, numbers and so I wanted to drop some numbers. What was the first time you flew first class? I remember it so clearly, Graham. So when I was doing the Adobe stuff, I was basically like kind of like an Adobe ambassador. So I was going to conferences probably three times a month, which is like very intense. And you know, they I could never choose. So I'd be in the back of the plane. I'd be middle seat. That was like the start of like I need to make money cuz I'm like I will never do this again. for some reason. I don't know why it gets so under my skin like being middle seat of airplane having people's arms shove off your arm and you just feeling powerless but um that it's like you know villain origin stories right there but um being sarcastic. So right after that you know I remember having a little bit of YouTube money and signing up for uh my first fancy credit card. So uh I got the Delta what is it called? I still have it today. um Sky Miles. Yeah. Yeah. It's the Delta AMX Sky Miles and I started building up points and uh you know I bought an upgrade with miles and that was probably like 2017 and I was going to a conference and a company basically paid. Now I have more leverage. If a company ever wants me to travel anywhere, I don't do it unless it's first class because I just stay home, you know, like COVID taught us you can do everything at home. Um, but yeah, back in the day, you know, a company wouldn't do that. And I upgraded uh with the help of that card and I was like, "Yes, I think I I think it was a trip to New York when I wasn't living there yet." So, I think that was I think that was actually 2016, so I might have been it was the end of my residency, but um but yeah, and I've never gone back. Yeah, you can't fly first class. I did I flew for first class. So, um I went last minute to surprise Macy and her family at Disneyland in Florida. And the first class option was like not that much more. And so I just did it. Uh cuz if I may as well experience this, it's incredible. I got so much work done. Yeah. And that's and that's the thing too that I I do in my head. I'm like the ROI of having a guaranteed plug of having space is I do my best email work on a plane. So it's actually extremely productive, too. On the way here, I organized my entire desktop of my computer. I have no more screenshots on my desktop. Go. It was so productive. See mine you know mine has all the screenshots but they stack on top of each other. So that's my that's my one splurge. And then if you want more numbers I looked at how much I spent on Door Dash last year. So um bless my accountant. He lays all of this out for me. So last year I spent uh I think it was $14,000 on Door Dash. And that is not that's just Door Dash. That's not including when I go out to eat. But I don't every meal you're Door Dashing almost. Sounds like Do you have a pantry per day? Do I have a pantry? Actually, no, I don't. I don't have a pantry. My townhouse, we use like a We had to get a cabinet. $40 a day on Door Dash. 40ucks. Yeah. Yeah. So, my Here's the thing. I don't like to be uncomfortable and I don't like to cook. And so, I'll tell you, my first moment of success in New York was I had just moved there and making, you know, enough cash where I started eating at Sweet Green $13 salads every single day for lunch. And because when I moved into my gross New York apartment, I cooked this sad chicken and it was somehow pink and rubbery. And I was just like, I can't do this. I can't do this anymore. And so really, it's so it's downhill from here. When I when I could pay for salads that sweet green, I was like, this is all I need. So that Yeah. So food. I need I need to show you guys this clip uh of you guys talking about first class. I don't know if you guys seen it, but it's Steve Harvey. Okay, check this out. pay a little extra money to fly first class. What it does is it conditions your mind once you get in first class and you see how wide the seats are. Everybody get a washcloth. They got a menu. You get to decide what you want. All the drinks is free. Once you sit in first class one time, the next time you get on the plane, it's very difficult to walk past them seats. And then your mind starts thinking of ways to get back to first class. He's talking about like making money. Talking about making money. Listen, I actually relate. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people are just think going to go into debt. You know, they're going to find a way. Okay. That actually spoke to me though if you unironically because that was my motivation like in the like and I remember okay I remember the first time too that I sat sat in the like 1A and I was like 1A I was like just seeing that on my ticket I was like 1A I'm going to live the 1A life you know um so that was cheesy but I understand where he's coming from because that actually was a flip that that switched in in my brain a switch that flipped in my brain Um, and now, yeah, and it also I'm like good now. I'm like when I finally looked around and I was like the life I'm living right now I am good with. You know, it changes how you do things. I've flown not first class after that. Every flight after that has been not first class. Like we went to North Carolina. Yeah. When we That was fine. Dave Ramsey podcast. Were you flying first class? No. Oh, we're going together. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. If you're if you're not in the middle seat, if you're not in the middle seat, it's manageable. But yeah, that's the one. It's nice, but I feel like if I were alone, I would do it because then I feel like I just hone in on work. But wait, can I say one more thing about the Steve Harvey clip? Because I I will say too, um, early in my career as well, when you're like the only young chick, when you're walking in with your like sweats and, you know, beanie and you just like don't care. But you like look around and you're with a bunch of like business bros and like you're the only like human that looks like you. I will say it is pretty motivating cuz like I feel like for me there was power in that because I'm like yeah I'm important like you major out yeah in this seat you know and so that's the kind of energy that I guess what's that like being one of the few females I feel like YouTube is very male dominated it seems like that at least especially tech yeah significantly in tech I will say that the tech space tech YouTube is amazing um the people I've been able to collab with they are so supportive. They've been supportive since the beginning. Um, and they I feel like they make an effort. The larger world, um, yeah, it can be there can be challenges, but I think my entire life I've kind of been used to like I played electric guitar. I was in a band. So, you know, I was the like 13-year-old girl playing electric guitars and being into pedals and amps and stuff. So, I've understood kind of this like demographic that you have to play in when your interests kind of skew more techy, if that makes sense. So, I've had a lot of practice, but there are things that come up like, you know, collabs that didn't happen because the girlfriend of the person you were supposed to collab with didn't want that to happen because he's not allowed to hang out with like another girl. So, um what? Are you serious? Yeah. Like that's that's literally happened. That's we got to hear this. I want to hear afterwards. So that like rocked me because it was right after the Casey thing and I was going to all these conferences and stuff and it was the first big creator that like recognized me for my work before, you know, everyone's like, "Oh, you're the Casey girl." And this person was like, "Oh my god, like that series that you did and this thing that you did." And they were, you know, he was like recognizing work outside of um that Casey video and he was a big creator. So, this collab was like I was putting up I was like, "This is a really big collab. This is going to be good for me." And we we literally filmed it and he didn't post it because of his girlfriend didn't want it out there. And you have to understand I like I don't look like I'm going to go steal your guy, you know? Like women are more than just like vessels of like, you know, uh I get it. You know? Yeah. I get it. So, so it's like that was like extremely disappointing. It was the most like I was like in I'm not going to say where I am cuz then you can start tracing things back. But I mean I I like called my mom. I was like balling my eyes out. Um because like business things don't happen sometimes because of that. Like that can get in the way. And so I guess a practical point for men would just be like make it not weird and it won't be weird. That that situation wasn't weird but for some reason his girlfriend felt uncomfortable. And so a lot of times you know that responsibility uh is on the woman unfortunately like don't wear permissive clothes, don't do this, don't do that, right? But then there's also professionalism. So anyways, there's just there's a lot of his girlfriend or did he tell you that specifically? Because I feel like if my girlfriend would act like that, I would not want to tell anyone. Like cuz I'm basically my girlfriend's psycho at that point. Oh, he was he was throwing her under the bus. You guys are going to Are they still together? You were going to freak out when I tell you who this is. Are they still together? Oh, like I want to know. I'll type it. I'll Are they still together? Yes. Yeah. No, but but here's the thing. Wait, let me guess. Can I guess? No, no, no. Let's not guess. What if he was talking you up a lot to the girlfriend before? Because again. And again, I don't know what's going on in their life. And I'm thinking maybe and and maybe there's a small chance that behind the scenes he's really talking you up. The fact that he's been watching you for quite some time, maybe there's like something there. The girlfriend is right. Devil's advocate here. Men are allowed to like women's content. I remember one of the most attractive things about my fiance John was like he he was like, "Oh, my favorite YouTuber is Lily Singh." And he like, it's going to sound crazy, but he had interest. Like he wasn't, you know, a super bro. And you know, he would like things like you're allowed to like women's content. It doesn't mean that you're sexually attracted to them, you know. Okay, I'm going to write this down. Oh, that's that's Yeah. Jeez. Yeah. And what and so I've had and this is someone who is so loved by the community and I just have this like weird like damn you like just you like I yeah I guess you know I don't know the situation I have a there there has to be more that that we're just not aware of because to me that seems like from from that person it's he shouldn't have like he shouldn't have explained it in depth in paragraphs like he was literally like I was here for her on this uh trip. So, it doesn't look good that he was like with another girl recording a video and yeah, so that's so odd. Uh you know, but see the thing for me is it's it's so far-fetched that I want to rationalize and be like, well, it's because of this and this. And this is why I would never publicly say it because like you can get a lot of views. Think of it that this clip would go. I would instantly become the enemy because I mean, you understand who that is. I mean they have so many you know. Wow that is really surprising. Yeah. Okay. Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So but overall you know things like that can happen and then you just take you know whatever. Um but overall the actual tech YouTube space is amazing. I mean the the people I've had opportunities to collaborate like I Justine Austin Evans Marquez. Um everyone is so cool in this space. Um, so I yeah, I feel super thankful that I landed in tech YouTube and not in like commentary YouTube or mainstream YouTube cuz you know I've had interactions with some of those people and it's it's very different. So finance YouTube's super nice. So what are some of the things you've learned from some of those other people? Like meeting Marquez amazing. He's he's the top or um I would say Marquez and Lionus. Lionus is awesome. I'm going through some drama with him right now, but it's like it's like we it's Oh, let's hear the drama. I don't want to hear. So, Lab22 is the desk accessory brand I just launched. We've been working on it for over a year. There is so much leading up to this. I talked about it for the first time like two months ago, but it was just an email list, so it wasn't a lot of announcements. So, we've been leading up to this. He floated a name of his new big project, his his uh testing facility where they're going to review tech really technically and it's really it's going to be awesome. But they were like, "Okay guys, we finally got um some names that were going to float." And this was Friday and he was like, "What do you guys think about lab 32?" And literally that's when I was starting to like get ready for the launch and all this stuff. And you know we launched Monday only two days after that lab 22 and so like half of my comments everywhere are like Sarah what about line you know lab 32 and it's like it's become this thing on Twitter um and it's the name we almost have like the same exact name of like new brands that we've been launching so it's not but we're friends and we've collabed and so we've been going back and forth very cordially. Um, so that's some recent fun stuff. So we'll have to figure that out. But did he know that your thing was lab? There's no way. I mean, it it was we I shouted out the email list, so I said it maybe twice before. I definitely first, but there's no there's no way that he could have known. Um, so it was it was really just extremely bad luck. Um, and so I could tell that they were a little like, you know, like, "Oh, how committed are you to this?" And I'm like, "Have you seen the Kickstarter? Have you seen the beautiful website? Um, and it's funny cuz like there's some brand overlap and stuff, but we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. How did you come up with the name Lab22? Yeah, Lab22. So, we started with That Creative Life, which is the name of my podcast, but legally. Um, and I was like hot off of a lawsuit about names and stuff, so I was like, I don't want any issues with the name. So, that creative life wasn't going to work out. And then we were like desk accessories, you know, like when I'm editing late at night, I'm like in the lab, right? And then I was like, we're launching in 2022. 22 has always been my number. So I played basketball in high school. I was a big basketball player. So, you know, I have all these jerseys of with the number 22. So I was like, oh, lab 22. Um, trick out your lab and 22. So that's why it's not super complex, but um And how did he pick 32? it um gosh I forgot what he said on the podcast but uh I think off of some com like retro computer system or something and it does make sense for their brand like they're building a tech lab where they can test things out so I totally understand why it's like lab tech32 uh because it it really is like a lab you know but I think a lot of people are like oh LTT labs you know or something like MIT labs yeah I like that LTT labs because their channel is LTT. So, it sounds just like a coincidence. It was a coincidence. A lot of coinc Yeah. I'm such a big fan of this pod. I literally send them notes of things that we could talk about because I'm like, I never get to talk about finance stuff on my channel. Yeah, this is this is amazing. Hopefully hopefully it was a good pod for everyone. Yeah, but yeah. What questions do you have for us? Yeah, I mean I would love to hear more about your journey to this like oh let's actually let's focus let's get back to the basics, right? Um did that affect how you're going to make YouTube videos? Like are you going to make a different style for your main channel or how does that manifest into the main channel? I'm just less stressed out. Okay. No. Um there were a few things that just I'm stressed out. I'm just thinking I I remember I was like I had to plan a video and you know I had to sign some it's something stupid I just had to like sign some papers and you know I really got down to it was like I I don't like doing that and everyone that we have on the podcast almost everyone is telling me Graham you should do this and you should do that and if you hire this and you grew this business over here you'd make so much more money and at the end of the day it's like it was just pulling my attention away and it made me realize that like I am not like I don't consider myself like a business owner I don't have a desire to run a business I don't have a desire to have a whole bunch of employees. Um, and I'm just like where I'm really the happiest is like sitting on the couch making a video without anything else to think about creating things. Yeah. And so when I really put into perspective, it's like, okay, I could do these other things. Is it really going to is it really worth my time to do these things compared to what I could just be doing without that stress. And so I started cutting like one thing after another. It started with the vlog and that was just that, you know, that wasn't a business, but it was just cutting down. Then uh you know millennial money was just something where it's I just I wanted that time back and I just you know I I just wanted to to have something where didn't have to think about it and just one less thing that's just on my shoulders and it felt so good in terms of like everything that I cut just felt like a weight was lifted. So I kept doing it and uh pretty soon you know I sold off one rental property loved it that was great. I'm selling off another one. These are these are the the first ones I bought. So, it's not nothing big, but I love the energy. Yes. Yes. And it's it's like sure you know the 8020 principle. That's what I kept going back to. I'm like, 20% of the work I'm doing over here is resulting in 80% of my outcome. So, why not I just focus on that and everything else is just noise. That's why I stopped my podcast. One day it might come back, but now I've made peace where I see it as a body of work. I've interviewed like 125 legendary people. Let that be what it is, you know. And so I I feel you. So on the other side, what would be your ideal like for Graham Stefen Enterprises? If you could do whatever you want with his business, what would it be? Cuz I feel like you're on the opposite side of just like just allowing Jack be like, "Hey, you run it. If I could like train if you could run Yeah. Yeah. If you could run all of his stuff, what would that look like?" Well, it's hard because I don't know what exactly his like daytoday looks like. But if I'm taking it from what he's told me, it's just basically basically like planning and like filming and reviewing and stuff like that. I would just say figure out where most of the time is going. See if you can find someone to potentially trim the fat on that and somehow like make it faster and more efficient. Uh, and then make that happen. Because I know for Graham right now, and this is something I brought up, but like it's very hard for him to take time off, at least like extended periods of time, like 3 4 days, you know what I mean? Like he can do like one day here and there, but I would like if something were to happen, some crazy opportunity, he can go take advantage of it and go somewhere for 3 4 days or someone can potentially present him with like three, you know, let's say one script with three different variations of different parts and then he can say, "Oh, I like this." Or maybe it's 80% done and he could just do like the 20% on the top of that or something like that. I will say that the script thing is hard because I I try to get help with script and I'm like that's not me. This is me is is that. So I understand that but then yeah, you want to feel like you can be able to go somewhere and I I I attribute my entire career to serendipity. In the beginning I just said yes to everything and it's still paying dividends and so I think having a healthy healthy balance of both of those worlds is is good. Yeah. I really love working though. I mean that's the thing. So, it's like for me traveling anywhere is usually just an inconvenience and it's like, "Oh, man. I got to go somewhere." Like, I just I just went to Santa Barbara with and it's it would be such a quick trip for you and Macy. I went there with John and my fiance and it was amazing. The beaches in Santa Barbara are gorgeous. It was the first time I disconnected in maybe two years. And so, I feel like you're so close to just so many pretty beaches and and places you could, you know, you could probably start popping over to But Yeah. But I got to do But but I have a little bit more free time now that I've cut a lot of the other stuff. It's just less to think about. And then also when you are cuz I had to stop feeling stressed about not taking a break. And so once you can free your mind of like I like working so I'm going to continue to work until maybe I should take a break. And so now that I've taken the stress off of the pressure of like you should take a break and all that stuff, it's much better. Yeah. But what would you So you would just hire a scriptor. Really? I would look into it. That's the thing. It's like you really haven't looked into it that much. So, you could say it's not possible, but we really don't know. But here's the thing. I mean, like I thought all of the the other things Graeme was doing on the side, that was a lot and he was definitely seemed like he was really stressed out and losing focus on the stuff that really mattered. But now, since he has dropped all of those things, and it does seem like he's at a place where his workload's very manageable, I think that's totally fine. And if he really does like enjoy scripting and stuff like that, I see no problem with it. I don't know if there's really much I would change. Now, the hardest part for me is topics. scripting. If if I had a topic that was presented to me every morning like do this and it will do well, I could do that so well. But it's figuring out the topics and the angle that will make it do well. So, and that's YouTube and that's what makes it so hard. I have so many ideas, but I don't have so many thumbnails and titles. So much gets left on the cutting room floor. So, yeah, Jeremy's actually been helping me with uh some video topics. he'll throw me the topics that he thinks would make a good video that he wouldn't cover. Maybe it's just not his stock market audience. So, the China video, he started sending me these videos. It was like, "Hey, um, this is a really interesting video. Check this out." And I start like doing a lot of research, but if it wasn't for Jeremy sending me that at like 11:00 p.m. at night on like a weekday, and I'm like, "Look at looking at this." I'm like, "My look at this video." And I'm showing her this like some incredible thing. Who are you doing your Twitter? Uh, no. Okay. because that is something I've noticed because I am so on Twitter and I'm like grandma is stepping up his Twitter and it's it's working. So, uh speaking of that, uh that is the only person who I think I would ever trust with the script and he's helped me with research. Um I got to do a huge I just have to shout him out. It's a market. It's called the market sentiment blog. I'll link to him down below in the description. Just seriously just it's free. It costs you nothing. Just go and check it out. Uh he's a blog that I referenced in a video like a year ago and I referenced him as this person who compiled this research. I'm like it's so good that I mentioned it in a video and then I linked to him in the description and he I I think I emailed him or he email emailed me. I was like, "Dude, thank you so much for that that shout out. We just gained 5,000 new subscribers to our our page. It like doubled. This is incredible." I was like, "Yeah, no, his his blog is so good." good and he posts once a week. And so I kept just like shouting out his blog cuz he had so much good research and I would just go there and then reference what he found and say, "Hey guy, just check this out. It's down below in the description." Uh, and we kept talking and then he made me the pitch and says, "Gram, you you have scripts for your videos. Why don't you create a newsletter and I'll do it for you?" Um, and so yeah, and from that he's been perfect. like he'll take my script but then take it a step further and then create his own graphs for like the research that I found. That's so good. Uh and then we've gone back and forth and then he took over the Twitter. But uh yeah, the the Twitter is is so good. We grew from I think it was 50,000 to 130,000. Wow. Um Twitter followers in like 3 months, four months, something like that. and uh you know I'm so happy to give him like any promotion whatsoever um just because his information is good but he's someone I I would trust and that's good and he's helped me with research like he's even come to me and says Graham if you want to do a video on this topic like I'll help you research on it and I think that's been fantastic and I think that's the best way to find people for for us is like people who naturally integrate and don't just say hey what can I do but it's like hey I will do this this and this and you only have to say yes And and because I know you were adamant about emailing Graham in the beginning. That was the a funny story, but like I think that's so helpful for people. If you admire someone or there's an entrepreneur, YouTuber that you want to work with, don't email them and just say, "Hey, I'll do anything." Say, "Hey, I noticed your uh podcast doesn't have clips on TikTok. Here are some examples that you can post right now free of charge. If you want uh to put me on a monthly retainer to have, you know, these clips every single month, hit me up. It's this price. If you make it so easy for them to say yes, like a lot of stuff can happen. Yeah. Um that way. Market sentiment blog. I'll link to it down below in the description. That's awesome. One more question. Yeah. If you have time. I feel like uh finance YouTube overall is going through an interesting thing because I was I went so ham on it during COVID, right? Because oh my god, it's so crazy and you know, you have all everything. But now it seems like, okay, inflation, markets down, what is new, right? Are you feeling that fatigue on your side just like personally? Oh gosh. Yeah. Yeah. If you're feeling it, I'm feeling it 10 times worse. Yeah. Cuz I'm like, how do you like mentally like wake up and be like, how am I going to talk about this? The good news is that if I set a goal and I say, no matter what, the day doesn't end until I finish a video, I'll finish the video. It's never been an issue of that. Uh the hard cuz because the thing is I know 100% I could always there's always like 30 topics that I could revert back to. There's truly nothing. They're evergreen videos. So it's like I could make another video on passive income. I can make another Yeah. And the thing is like those do well because nobody goes back and watches the videos that I've posted like 3 years ago. Uh so unless you get that recommended, you're never seeing it. And most new subscribers will never see those videos. So they're missing out on that. So every now and then I do try usually once a year I try to go back through videos that I think are important remake them better and make them updated. So let's say it's like the top five ETFs that you could buy um of 2019. Well, you know, even though it's might be pretty similar today, we could improve the video, make it funnier, make it more interesting and bring it up to date. And the funny thing is too, uh people think that the videos that I've done in like 2018 are no longer valid. Be like, "Oh, dividends, that's 2018. markets changed. So, it's almost like you have to make a new video on that for people to to think it applies. That's a good point. So, yeah. So, there's always like probably 20 topics realistically that I could make if there's truly nothing and I do that. So, usually like once every other week there'll be one of those videos and then it kind of fills the space in between the time. But, yeah, there's definitely not a lot to talk about. So, you know, I would like to pivot I think at some point, but uh you know, I think it'll just happen naturally. Yeah. Glad you have the podcast. I mean, that keeps things new. I like the flow. I think we got a good flow. They they trickle in through the main channel. Sometimes they'll they'll dabble in the second channel a little bit, some reactions. Uh, by the time they make it to the podcast, though, and the podcast I I really hope is growing its own audience. I have a feeling there's a lot of over probably 80% overlap. But I'd love for the podcast to have more uh of its own demographic that's separate where they're like, "Who's that?" Yeah, cuz you're bringing in new people all the time. And yeah, I mean, I think it's great. No, don't stop the podcast. Oh god. No, no, no. That honestly I would say the podcast would would be the Well, I don't want to jinx it now. I feel like I'm going to jinx it. I'm going to jinx it. No, I have the podcast I I think has a lot of longevity. There's a lot to the podcast that I really enjoy. Yeah, I enjoy it. Yeah. And it's cool now with the podcast. So, sometimes I get a little bummy if we post an episode and it doesn't do that well. But now I feel like we have so many different faucets for like growth. Uh we've been doing Instagram reels of the podcast. I've been seeing your Tik Toks. Yeah. Oh god, the t You know what's funny? Uh my dad sends me T. He's like he gets recommended the the Tik Toks. Yeah. Randomly he's like I saw this Tik Tok. I thought it was really good. I'm like you you're on Tik Tok and then like you got recommended that. Like he's not searching this out. Like he got recommended that. That's amazing. Tik Tok like hey dad imagine this gets clipped up. Did Did you know, fun fact, did you know Tik Tok recommends based on like location? Yes. Yeah. So, if you So, if you're like an aspiring filmmaker, it would be wise to like post your Tik Toks when you're in LA or something. I just learned that. I get a lot of Las Vegas Tik Toks. Yeah. But, uh Yeah. But so, we've been doing Instagram, um Facebook, we're in the process of Snapchat. Good. Yeah. I've heard people make good money. Yeah. Mhm. It's pretty crazy like the amount of reach that you can get on all these other platforms. But it's also interesting to note that they don't really like trickle down into the what I was saying. I was like all of these views, but what does it do? However, if your face is on there, it's brand equity. You're building brand awareness. It's hard because it's like this false sense of confidence that you get because it's like, hey, that there is there is real value to it. So, if you're if you're reaching out for a potential guest on the podcast, you can say, "Hey, on average, our videos will get or each episode will get 30 million views of reach." And you're including all of your short form and everything, and all they care about is YouTube video. It's like 20,000 views. No, but the thing is like at the end of the day, if we're having a guest on that's of that level where you like actually need to pitch it to them, all they really care about is reach. Have some product. It's superficial stuff. So, it's like what's your follower count? What's your view count? I agree with you on that. But yeah, it makes it I agree. It makes it a lot more attractive, especially if we can disperse it on all these different platforms. They have confidence that like, okay, on all these different platforms with all these different populations or viewer demographics, and that's a lot more uh interesting to them. No, that's a great point. Really briefly, I I'm not trying to to to plug anything or anything, but uh No, I'm not I'm not I sponsored by Lexar. Yeah. Okay. No, that's what I was going to bring up. Andrew, cut this out. last podcast. Um, people were like, "I can't believe Alex got a sponsor." Like, I just have to point it out, guys. It's kind of a joke, but also kind of not a joke. It's certainly not a joke. Don't you dare act like it's a joke. Hilarious, man. Funny that they deposit money in your bank account. But, let's be honest, before before I brought anything, I did float the the idea around and um, you know, we agreed as long as it wasn't anything too crazy. I will say the wedding thing shook me to my core. So you're against you're against it? I was I was shocked that that was even a thought to be honest. Are you serious? I thought it was a good idea. I was like I I get it now after listening to it. I could understand how you could get to that point. But I feel like a wedding is like such a pure thing or that you tried to keep that way that I was like, "Oh my gosh, I feel like that would be you have to remember." Yeah. You you also have you also have to remember like when people ask my wife like, "Oh, you got married?" She's like, "Yeah, we got married in December because of tax purposes." And like like you have to remember like who you're dealing with, you know? Wait, what uh what are reasons to get married in a certain month because tax purposes, doesn't matter. As long as you're married by the end of Yeah. So because here's the thing, we were going to get married in 2022. Um but it was the end of 2021. I had just started my own business. I had all this income. We're in like this tax bracket where we're not maxing out and um so by getting married we we got a tax break. Yeah. Yeah. Alex literally realized that as I was just sitting at my desk like you know you can save money with the being married and he's like what what I have to propose and it was probably like honestly Jack do not throw me under the bus that I would put I wouldn't put this up. Seriously. It was like 30 seconds that lapsed between No, you could put it up. You could put it up. Yes. It's funny. Yeah. But he knew he was going to do it anyways. But it was just Yeah, I told Jack I was like, "You know what?" Like, I knew I was going to do it anyway. But we're probably Yeah, now's the time. I'm probably aloping because of how expensive things are. But yeah, I've been engaged for almost two years now. We got engaged February 2020, right before the pandemic in New York. It's tragic. Plans for getting married. We now we're just saying, let's go back to New York, just rooftop dinner, small ceremony with just immediate family cuz like I I'm not Yeah. I'm not a planner. And so I'm not a planner. John's not a planner. And so we just haven't gotten married because of that, you know. So we would love to get married, but we just need to do something simple. Yeah. Co complicated things. That makes sense. Yeah. Eli Jones, thank you so much for supporting that Patreon. You make a difference and you are the reason why they wake up in the morning. That's true. All right. Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. JLSBY on Instagram. Good night. And make sure to get your free stock down below. Uh, make sure to buy some Lexar stuff. Thanks, guys.