Meet The Faceless Entrepreneur Making MILLIONS | Jubilee Media
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Jubilee Media, founded by Jason Lee, has evolved from a grassroots nonprofit initiative into a massive YouTube phenomenon known for its social experiment videos that consistently go viral and attract reactions from top creators like PewDiePie. The podcast details how Jason transitioned his career path after working as a consultant at Bain & Company; despite achieving financial stability early on, he felt unfulfilled helping others pursue their dreams without owning the vision himself. This realization led him to quit his high-paying job in 2012 alongside friends Eric and Eddie to launch Jubilee Project as a nonprofit, initially funded by personal savings and support from family while living frugally in Irvine before moving to Los Angeles. The early content focused on short films like "Blind Devotion" which garnered millions of views, but Jason eventually pivoted the organization into for-profit entity, Jubilee Media, aiming to scale operations significantly to address societal division through discourse and human connection rather than just charitable storytelling. The discussion highlights several pivotal moments in Jason's life, including his decision-making process regarding appearing on controversial videos like "Millionaires versus Minimum Wage Workers," where he initially hesitated but ultimately agreed after weighing the pros and cons, a choice that proved successful by resonating with audiences seeking nuanced perspectives. A significant portion of the interview covers Jason's personal story involving how he met his wife Melody Ham through an ad for Wealthfront on Facebook; their relationship faced challenges due to long-distance issues and cultural differences regarding family approval, culminating in a dramatic incident where Melody's father refused permission because Jason was underdressed at lunch. After enduring further tests from her fiery father-in-law figure, including being kicked out of the car before attending his cousin's wedding, they eventually married during COVID-19, with her father later expressing pride and delivering an emotional speech acknowledging that Jason had passed all their trials. Jason also reflects on the evolution of Jubilee Media's content strategy and its relationship with other YouTube personalities, particularly regarding "Millennial Money." He explains his initial reluctance to show personal finances but eventually embraced transparency as a way to educate viewers while maintaining authenticity despite concerns about how footage might be edited by others like Jessica from Millennial Money. The podcast touches upon the challenges of managing large-scale productions involving diverse groups such as rival gangs in episodes exploring political "middle ground," emphasizing the importance of safety measures and emotional support for participants. Additionally, Jason discusses his current life in Las Vegas, praising its friendly community atmosphere compared to difficult experiences with neighbors in West Adams, California, noting that finding supportive environments is crucial for creative sustainability. Looking toward the future, Jason outlines a vision to expand Jubilee Media's influence beyond YouTube by bringing musicians, athletes, and celebrities into mainstream conversations about personal finance, breaking down taboos around discussing income sources like movie salaries or sports earnings. He believes figures such as Shaquille O'Neal are often underestimated in their business acumen but could serve as powerful role models if given a platform to share financial wisdom alongside their athletic achievements. The conversation concludes with an acknowledgment of the "infinite monetization loop" where reacting to one's own content drives further growth, and Jason expresses gratitude for the opportunities Jubilee has provided others, including helping individuals launch careers or even find love through shared fandoms. Ultimately, the story underscores themes of faith-driven entrepreneurship, the courage required to follow one's true calling despite societal expectations, and the ongoing mission to foster understanding in a divided world.
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Jubilee Media is a YouTube phenomenon.
From a grassroots start as a simple
production driven by one man trying to
raise money for a good cause to a
millionoll startup revolutionizing
YouTube with the real life social
experiment videos that consistently go
viral over and over and over. They've
also famously been reacted to by the
likes of PewDiePie, Cody Co, and plenty
of other popular streamers and
YouTubers. And today we get to sit down
with Jason Lee, the founder who started
it all, and we chat about the
strategies, failures, and successes that
he has seen in growing this massive
production. So, if you guys enjoy videos
just like this, make sure to subscribe
because we post a brand new episode
every single Sunday. So, thank you guys
so much. And now, let's begin the
podcast. This is Jason Wy from Jubilee
Media with the Ice Coffee Hour podcast.
And to date, I think this podcast has
made $267,000.
People are getting pretty close.
$251,000.
That's pretty good.
You guys haven't haven't dropped the the
Mr. Beast or the the Dave Ramsey one
yet, right? I feel like when that
happens, it'll scale quickly. So, very
very soon. We're going to hit 267,000.
Okay.
Actually, I think Dave Ramsey's posting
tomorrow or Sunday. So, that's coming
really soon.
Hopefully, in the next couple of days,
then we can get there.
Yeah. And then Mr. Beast probably a week
after that. So, you might be after these
two. I don't know. We'll see.
We'll see. We'll figure it out. I feel
like I'm in good company actually. I
feel like you saved me for a good like
you stepped up a few levels on the
podcast.
Well, congrats to you guys. I mean,
thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Amazing guests and like having some
really good conversations. So,
yeah. Well, including you, by the way.
This is something I I've really been
looking forward to this one because I've
been watching Jubilee. Gosh, it's been
what 5 years about 40 four years. Well,
likewise. I I was just saying, you know,
my wife and I, we just bought a home,
but I was like watching I've seen so
many of your videos, but at the time I
was like,
is this a good time to buy a house? And
it's like, oh no, Graham says it's not a
good time. Or like
you're buying at the worst.
This is the top of the bubble. And then
the next video was never a good time to
buy part of the bubble.
And then I'm like, okay, I don't know.
Uh but uh no, obviously a big fan. And
thank you so much for being a part of a
lot of our stuff at Jubilee.
Of course. Yeah. I feel like you gave me
such a huge opportunity in 2019. I think
I was just coming off of that $78 Tesla
video and I appeared in a Jubilee video.
What was it? Millionaires versus minimum
wage workers.
Middle. Yeah. And I almost said no to
that episode. I had an interview and I
didn't know I didn't know how it was
going to turn out because I watched the
video. I think it was uh what was the
one where there was a big argument? Was
it the vegan versus the
Yeah. And there was a odd one out vegan.
Yeah, that was it.
They can get kind of spicy and very
like, you know, it's all about real
people bringing their real stories,
right? We try to create a safe space for
it, but sometimes it can get a little
bit heated. So, totally. I've had
friends say like, "No, I'll never show
up on one of your videos." But, uh, we
were happy you came on because I think
you gave such a great like nuanced view,
right? Because people hear about
millionaires and they're like, "Ah, I
don't know like they're all d or
whatever." And I think that people
really resonated with your story. So, I
mean, that's just a credit to you. We're
just happy to like give platform to good
people.
Yeah. I am so happy I decided to say yes
for that. It was honestly a no up until
maybe a week before, maybe 10 days
before. I was like, you know what?
What's the worst? I really actually made
a pros and cons list. I'm like, what if
we get in an argument? What if I say
something? Cuz I remember asking one of
your producers. I said, if I say
something,
can I have a final say on like what gets
put out? And they're like, no. Yeah.
They said no. They just said,
okay,
we'll include what we can. We want to
make you look good and we want to make
sure that like you're happy with it. But
no, we're not going to let you see it
before. Just be careful of what you say
and if you need time to speak, just like
take your time.
Good. That's
And I was like, I made a pros and cons
list and I was like, there's more pros
and cons. I'm going to do it. And I
think that video was like number four on
trending. It It was
It did really well. Yeah, I remember
that. And then am I right that you made
a response to the video, too?
Of course, it's any way possible.
Yeah. This is called the infinite
monetization loop. Yes. So, if I could
react to my own content, I will. Uh
because it's just another way to
monetize.
Later on, Jubilee, I will have a
response to this podcast. These are all
the reasons why this is wrong. No. Um,
no. You've been on several videos now,
right? So, four.
Every time our audience sees you, I
think that they really enjoy you and
it's awesome to see you guys blowing up
on the podcast and obviously your videos
are always killing it. So,
thank you. It's funny because it was
also that video specifically that
sparked my final email to Graham.
Really?
Because I was going to sign up for it as
a minimum wage worker cuz I was working
minimum wage at the time.
Imagine if that was like how you guys
wanted. I forgot about this.
Yeah. And I emailed him about I'm like,
"Dude, I'm so bummed out that like I was
going to sign up and I could have met
you just by chance." And I didn't know
he was doing it, of course, but as soon
as I saw it come out and I was like,
"Dang, I was going to do that one."
Wow.
Yeah.
Have you been one of our videos on? You
have? Yeah,
it was because of that I think uh was
one of the reasons why Jack is now
working with me.
That's crazy.
Unfortunately, it was capitalist versus
socialist
and you came on on the
capitalist
capitalist side. Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. There's been so many people in our
videos that now people come up to me
like, "Hey, I was in your video." And
I'm always like, "Ah, I your face looks
so familiar to me." But I
I didn't think I saw you on the set.
I wasn't I I'm rarely on set these days
anymore, unfortunately. I don't I don't
get to be a part of it as much. Yeah, it
would really be interesting to get an
inside look on like what exactly goes
down for you on a day-to-day basis
considering this is something that you
you came up with it all yourself, right?
I did. Yeah. Um,
now tell us about this because didn't
you quit your job to
Jubilee and create that?
Well, I was watching your podcast with
uh was it Elliot who was talking about
like consultants? So, I'm a former
consultant. So, I can explain.
What do you do?
What is that? Yeah. So the way I would
explain it to like my mom for example is
we just help big companies like solve
difficult decisions essentially like
these consultants have seen so many of
the same problems whether it's around
headcount whether it's around strategy
whether it's around like launching a new
product that they become specialized at
doing that thing and therefore they're
not going to be able to give you the
answer but they can help you answer a
lot of the questions or like ask the
right questions along the way. So when
he said like frameworks that's that's
the right answer actually. There's like
we've seen this a hundred times. It
doesn't mean now that you guys are going
to launch your own coffee that we know
exactly what kind of coffee you should
launch, but we know all the right
questions to ask that you can avoid some
of the pitfalls and then we would make
like a final recommendation. So yeah, I
was a consultant for 3 years. So was it
a good gig
for me? I grew up in like uh my parents
are both academics. So I grew up like
pretty and they were grad students like
my entire life. So we were pretty like
um lower income I would say growing up.
So growing up, I just thought, hey, one
day if I can make $100,000 as a salary,
that'll be like I'll be rich. That was
my mindset.
My first job out of college, I was
making six figures. I was like, I've
made it. So that was everything I kind
of had dreamed of working in New York
City. I was in Time Square, working at
Bane, one of the biggest consulting
firms. And I was like, I've made it. I'm
going to be so happy. And in a lot of
ways, it like checked that box. But I
think it also made me really honestly
reevaluate everything because I was like
I achieved everything I thought I
wanted. And despite all that, it wasn't
that I was unhappy, but I felt like kind
of unfulfilled. And I think a lot of it
was as it relates to as a consultant,
you're spending so much of your time and
your energy helping other people pursue
their vision or their dreams, but you
don't get to own a lot of it yourself.
And I think I started to recognize,
okay, maybe I'm not a consultant. Maybe
I'm a builder myself. What would that
look like if I was doing that? So that
was kind of like the whole whirlwind and
it was while I was a consultant at BIN
that I made my very first YouTube video
and that really started Jubilee project
and eventually Jubilee media too.
Got to tell us about that video. Can we
see it? Is it still I think that uh yeah
if you watch it's a little bit like uh
cringey to watch but I think that's
important.
Is it on the Jubilee channel?
It's still on Jubilee channel. Yeah. So
the first video I ever made was called
my hundred for Haiti. My 22nd birthday
was January 12th, 2010, but it happened
to also be the day of the Haiti
earthquake. And it was this like weird
confluence of events where I just gotten
this new job. I was like living in New
York City, New York City apartment,
killing it, all that. And then that
afternoon, it was like devastating
photos and videos of Haiti. And I was
like, why am I so blessed? What am I
doing about this? And at the time this
200 uh 2009
um sorry 2010 was during the height of
the recession. So we weren't doing much
work as consultants. We were like on the
beach as they said. We're just like
waiting for the next case. Like I got to
do something. So I decided to go to
Union Square like a subway stop to busk
with my guitar to raise money.
We raised $80. I made my very first
video. I put it on YouTube. I sent it to
all my friends. Said, "Hey, please
watch. Please donate." And within a week
we had 10,000 views. We had raised tens
of thousands of dollars and it was kind
of like that light bulb moment not of
like I want to be a YouTuber but wow we
can actually use media storytelling to
really galvanize folks and do a lot of
good and that kind of got that started.
So soon thereafter I started Jubilee
Project which was a 501c nonprofit. I
got one of my best friends Eric and one
of my and my brother Eddie on board and
we were just like doing that rag tag
nights and weekends.
Do you still run as a nonprofit today?
No we don't. Yeah. So, Jubilee Project
still exists as like a sister
organization, now like a foundation to
Jubilee Media. And then in 2017, I
launched Jubilee Media, which is a new
entity.
Got it. And you quit your job to do
that. How is that?
Well, I quit my job to do Jubilee
Project,
which was insane because this was 2012
and at the time I was working at Bane.
My older brother Eddie was working at
the White House at the time. He was at
the Obama administration and my friend
Eric was at Harvard med school and we
were like doing these videos on the side
for fun and we said you know what this
is what we want to do. So we all quit
same day which was crazy. It's me and my
brother were the only children of Korean
immigrants. Eric Taiwanese only child.
They're like what are you going to do?
We said we're going to make videos on
YouTube. They're like how are you going
to make money? And we're like we're not.
We're going to be a nonprofit. It's like
not only are you going to be a video
creator when like the idea of being a
creator was still relatively nent,
we're going to do it as a nonprofit. So
it was like let's shoot ourselves in
both feet so we cannot walk or run. But
it was just this leap of faith, you
know,
I was speaking at an event. I don't know
if you ever do like speaking events for
like colleges or things, but I was
speaking at an event for a college and
there was a woman who had spoke right
before me and she was speaking about a
woman named Bonnie Wear who's like a
pali of care nurse. She's someone who
helps folks who are like on their
deathbed.
Um, and she asked everyone, you know,
what is the biggest regret that you have
in your life? So, and the biggest regret
that folks had was not like, I wish I
made more money or I wish I had traveled
more. The biggest regret that folks who
were about to die would say was, I wish
I had the courage to live a life true to
myself and not one that others expected
of me. And when I heard that, I was like
cut to the heart. I was like, oh, this
is my life. My entire life up until this
point, I've made all these decisions
because I was supposed to go to a good
school. Let me try to go to an Ivy
League school. I I was supposed to get a
highpaying job. And I never asked
myself, what is it that I wanted to do?
And when I started Jubilee Project, I
was like, whoa, this is actually feels
like something I'm supposed to do. I'm
using my gifts, my talent to help other
people. I'm going to quit my job. And
then the mayhem started, right? It's
like, what are you going to do? My boss
is like, this is crazy. You have no
backup plan. We were making no salary at
the time, but it was just like a huge
leap of faith. And slowly I saw that
like when you are pursuing what you're
meant to do, kind of like the stars and
the universe or God or faith will align
to allow you to help make it. So
when everyone quit, was the nonprofit
generating any like reasonable amount of
revenue to quit or was it just like a
Hail Mary? We were yeah we were bringing
in probably 20 to 30k annually but all
that was going back into our video
content. So we weren't actually making
any money ourselves.
How did you support yourself then?
Yeah. All of my savings that I had from
Bane I just like used that as my nest
egg.
And what I mean by like people just came
out and supported us when we moved to we
were going to like move to LA right like
everyone's here. We're moving to LA.
They're like where are you going to
live? And Eric's mom had said, "You know
what? You can live in our home." So
they're like, "Where you going to live?"
We're like, "Where you going to live in
Irvine?" They're like, "That's not LA."
Um, but we lived in Irvine for 2 years
for free. My brother and I, we were
23 and probably 25 at that time. We were
like living in a bunk bed,
you know, tiny home. Finally, she kicked
us out. Someone else that we knew said,
"Hey, you can live in my house for free
for another year." Like all these
different kind of things happens that
allowed us to like just continue to do
what we did.
That's really generous.
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And that's the
thing. It's like that's why when folks
kind of reach out to me and say, "Hey, I
think I'm going to quit med school or
I'm going to quit my job to do this." I
don't say go for it. I say, "Hey, what
have you done thus far that can
demonstrate that you'll have some kind
of success?" Right? I was doing Jubilee
Project for several years while at Bane
before I quit even.
But when you start to make that leap of
faith, I kind of truly believe that like
things will kind of happen and work as
as long as you're persistent and humble.
Sure. And has the style of content
stayed the same as far as like what you
guys are putting out now versus what you
guys were doing back in the early
project days?
Not at all. My first video was my 100
for Haiti. So that was kind of like a
vlog like kind of uh video. I did
several like that. And then we actually
started doing like short films,
like romantic skits kind of is what I
would call them. I don't know if you're
familiar with Wong Fu Productions.
They're big in like the Asian-American
space,
but we would do like a love story, but
then it would raise money for a certain
cause. Some of the messaging was unclear
at times, but we actually had a lot of
success doing that. One of our biggest
videos called Blind Devotion, short
film, it's about like seven or eight
minutes. It ended up getting about like
25 million views, which is unheard of
for like a scripted fictional piece,
right? So, that was really what we were
doing. But then when I started Jubilee
Media, I started to recognize this is
like not really a viable way to scale.
It cost so much time and money to do
that that we knew that that's not the
way that we were going to make the
difference.
Talk to us about the evolution between
going from that to where Jubilee is
today. How many employees do you have?
We're about 40 employees now.
That's incredible. I remember when I
filmed it was a much bigger operation
than I thought. I'm used to just like,
hey, it's it's one person and like maybe
a helper, two people like doing it
themselves, but I walked it was like a
full-on production. There was like a set
blown away.
Yeah. It's been sometimes when I'm on
set, I'm like astounded by what's
happening. And I used to direct all of
our videos ourselves and now they're
like, "Please do not touch a camera,
Jason. You're going to mess something
up." I'm like, "You're right. Let me
stay away." Um, but yeah, the transition
from Jubilee Project was the three of
us. It was like the three of us, three
musketeers. We were doing this together.
Um, but after a couple years, both Eddie
and Eric, they fell in love with
different folks and they kind of saw
that they had a kind of a different
path and they both left and it was just
me doing Jubilee Project alone actually.
Did you have to buy them out or did they
just say hey you could take over?
It was a nonprofit so we had no owner.
It was just, hey, you know, um, I'm
going to do something different.
And actually, that was a really
challenging time because even though we
were starting to really grow in
subscribers, we had maybe like 150,000
subscribers, I want to say. We had just
launched Blind Devotion. It got like 20
million views at that time. I felt like
a complete failure, actually. I felt
like my my brother and my friend don't
even believe in what I'm doing. I felt
like the last man kind of standing on
like a sinking ship. And that was about
a year or two of just like internal
soulsearching, I would say, where I was
like, man, what am I supposed to do? I
don't know my purpose. Like, is this
even what I'm supposed to be doing?
Should I go back into consulting? Should
I go to business school? My mom's like,
just go to business school. Everything
will be fine. Um, even though that was a
really dark and difficult time, it ended
up being really important because I like
started to kind of like pull back all
the layers of like subscriber count did
not ma not matter to me anymore. like uh
getting this person in the video didn't
matter to me anymore. Like all these
things didn't matter. I started to
really ask myself why am I here? What is
it that I want to do? And on the back
end of that, that was 2016 2017 around
the election. And after the presidential
election, it felt like the world was
like more divided than ever. And that's
when I started to see like a really
clear vision for what I wanted to build
with Jubilee, which is as the world's
more divided, why don't we create a
media company that's about bringing
people together? that's about discourse.
It's about provoking understanding and
real human connection. And I felt like
that was something that the world really
needed. And I was like, "Okay, I'm going
to try to do that, but this time not as
a nonprofit. We're going to raise
capital. We're going to do this as a
proper venture and we're going to scale
this as large as possible." So that kind
of kicked off Jubilee Media. So 2017, I
raised a small round of capital and I
was like off to the races.
Who did you raise from?
Well, first I got like I I literally
have a list. I have 83 nos. So
when you kind of talk about like raising
capital, it at first sounds like the
most like I had no idea what that would
even entail. I had never done that
process. I didn't know who to speak to.
So I was talking to anyone and everyone
and I actually got into rooms with like
really reputable VCs like a lot a lot of
big investors and I totally just blew it
because I had no idea what I was doing.
So 83 nos. My very first check came from
a professor at Wharton where I went to
college who taught entrepreneurship and
she was like, "Jason, let me kind of
help you. I believe in what you're
trying to build. Let me give you your
first check." And after that, slowly I
started getting checks.
How much was the first check?
My first check, I think it was about
20K.
Okay.
Wow.
And what were you doing wrong to blow it
the first 83 times?
Yeah. First of all, articulating the
vision is really really important to
tell people like very clearly what
you're trying to build and why. And I
think I knew why. I just didn't know how
it would look because be at that time
you got to remember there was no middle
ground. There was no spectrum. There
were none of these shows. I was just
saying we're going to make positive
content. And people were like, "Oh,
cool. Like Upworthy." And I was like,
"No, not like Upworthy. Upworthy is like
what my mom and my grandma watches. I
want to make positive content for young
people that will like provoke them." And
they're like, "What do you mean like
Buzzfeed?" I was like, "No, it's going
to be with more value and there's going
to be like a point to it." Not to say,
"No shade."
Um,
I think everybody understands.
Yeah. Don't
And then so so many people just didn't
understand it. And then secondly,
sometimes you find yourself in a room
with someone that will just not say yes
because it's just not not the right fit,
right? Like they don't care about media
or they don't invest in media. Um, they
have no interest in what you're talking
about. So that was the majority of the
nos. And then once I started to like
articulate what I was trying to build
better and actually get into rooms with
angel investors for example, I found,
oh, they're the folks who are looking
earlier stage. Like if I'm at a VC
company, they're looking to invest big
checks into like slightly further stage
companies. Whereas angel investors are
like, you've got an idea to make this
kind of coffee, whatever. Great. I'll
give you 10K, 20K. But some of our early
angels are like include everyone from
Kevin Lynn, he's one of the founders of
Twitch,
uh Steve Chen, one of the founders of
YouTube. Like we've got some really
incredible founders who some of those
conversations were like the fastest
seven minutes. They're like, "Oh, cool,
cool, cool. Okay, I'll talk to you
later." I was like, "Oh, I blew it."
I was like, "Hey, is there anything I
can send you to like maybe give you more
info?" They're like, "No, no, I'm going
to send my check now."
See, part of me believes maybe it's
because you got that first check that
all of a sudden it shifted something for
you or you're like, "Wow, the fact that
one person believed in me means that
there's got to be someone else." And
then that like changes the mindset, too.
And think about yourself as an investor.
Do you want to be the first check?
Right? Like it's a very scary thing is
you're like, I've got no validation, but
then you start hearing, oh, Graham and
Jack both invested and Steve and Kevin
and the founder of this company. And
then you're like, oh wait, I want to get
in. there's like a natural kind of FOMO
or human instinct to do that. So, it
totally makes sense. I don't hold
anything against the previous investors
because I think it really required me to
like figure out what I wanted to build.
And that process can be really
difficult, but it's supposed to make you
a better founder, I think.
Was there a lot of skepticism around
YouTube being like a viable profitable
business at the time as well, or had it
already kind of proven itself?
There were examples. Luckily, at that
time, Buzzfeed was it was the heyday of
BuzzFeed where people were like this.
What is that like 2014ish?
This was Yeah. 15 six Buzzfeed surveys
were everywhere and you would have to
click like a new page for every single
thing like 10 things you didn't know
your girlfriend does. You have to click
eight times. I hated it. And oh, the
quizzes
the ads at the bottom. Also, their video
content if you remember like the try
guys were fantastic. Tasty was just
getting launched. So people were like,
"Oh my god, this is the future of
entertainment," which was not untrue,
right? But what people kind of believe
that media would scale infinitely, which
we learned is not the case. That you
can't go from 1,000 videos to 2,000
videos and go to 10,000 videos and
believe like that line will be linear
with brand partnerships, for example, or
with advertising necessarily because
it's difficult to do. But um there was a
model for that and like a lot of folks
were interested still in that.
So when someone's an investor, does that
mean they get an equity stake in the
company or how does that work?
It can look a couple different ways. It
can come in the form of like a
debt note or like a safe.
So safe is like the YC like the Y
combinator version of a debt note. Um or
it can come as a a percentage of equity.
But yeah, the general idea is this
person is buying a small percentage of
your company and believing that it's
going to be worth a lot of money one
day. And the interesting thing about
angel investors or like this stage of
company is they really want you to
either become a unicorn like a billion
dollar company or sometimes they would
actually rather you fail. Like it's not
good for them if you become let's say a
$20 million company. You're like making
good revenue. You're like feeding
everyone and giving good salaries to
employees because they don't get an exit
actually,
right? So they want to find the next
Facebook.
Yeah.
Microsoft.
They want their ride off.
Yeah.
If they if they don't fail, there's no
write off.
That's a good point. Can't adopt that.
Yeah. I have to consult you about some
tax tax questions later. Uh but yeah. So
for you personally like you're kind of I
would assume in that middle there
between unicorn and like a you know a
struggling
I would like to say that we're right in
the middle but that's not true. We're
still I think on the early end generally
still in our life cycle but um it's all
a matter of perspective right. Um the
way I think about it is when you're
first a founder and it's just yourself
and starting a company it's like going
into the ocean with like inflatable life
raft
and you're just like feeling every wave.
So every success and this is like so
relevant even to creators too, right?
Like every video that crosses 100
thousand or a million views, you're like
this is the best thing ever and then you
like I don't know you have some kind of
problem and it's like the worst problem
and you think oh my company will never
succeed or I'll never be a great
creator. And slowly as the company
grows, it's not the waves get bigger,
it's actually the boat gets bigger. So
you're actually able to like withstand
some of that difficulty better. And
eventually hopefully you want to be a
unicorn where you're on a cruise ship,
right? you hit the same wave. You like
literally don't even feel it. I kind of
feel like we are
well on our way to being cruise ship,
but I still feel like we're still pretty
nimble. I kind of fancy us as like a
small yacht. I don't know.
How do you come up with some of your
ideas? Like the originality of your
videos, I feel like get copied. Like
you'll come up with a concept and within
a month there's like five other channels
who do the the same like Tinder swiping
in real life.
Yeah. Similar thumbnail styles too. I've
seen I mean they they do a they're great
mimickers, right? It's just sometimes I
see some of their thumbnails like did we
make that? No, that's not our video. Oh,
interesting. And I'll watch them go,
"Wow, well done." Um,
who comes up with those ideas? What was
the first big idea? Was it was it the
swiping in real life?
The first big idea, no, was um was
middle ground. It was actually the one
that, you know, you bring two sides
together to quote unquote have a debate,
but really it's about finding common
ground.
And that first idea came about,
actually, this is pretty interesting.
There's an organization called the five
ventures. What they do is they'll bring
entrepreneurs or investors and they'll
actually bring them to um like federal
prisons and you'll spend a couple of
days or weeks with uh folks in prison
who have like an entrepreneurial idea
and at the end of that program they'll
actually pitch and then they'll like
give seed money to folks who are
starting companies. Really really
incredible. And the idea is like how do
we empower folks to like have capital,
create their own opportunity, right? The
first day I was in that prison,
they had an exercise where they had all
the folks who were incarcerated on one
side, they had all the entrepreneurs and
the investors on the other. And they
would ask a series of questions and they
would say, "Hey, step to the line if
this is true for you." I remember some
of the questions were like, "Hey, if you
grew up in a two two parent household,
step to the line." And for that one,
like a lot of folks who are on my side
like stepped forward and some folks on
the other side did not. There were other
questions though that were like if
you've ever broken the law before, step
to the line. And everyone had stepped to
the line, right? Like I've I've run a
red light before. I've
done things maybe I'm not proud of and
some things that are just innocuous. And
it was very clear that actually a lot of
us had very a lot in common actually.
And maybe it was our circumstances or
the way that we look or different things
that actually cause one of us to be in
prison, one of us to be like a founder
of a company. And it was just kind of
like a very mind-blowing idea that we
actually have far more in common than we
might think. And we started thinking
about, oh, in the context of this
election, I'm from Kansas, very, very
Bible belt, relatively red state. We
live in LA now, relatively or very blue.
I know people on both sides of the same
debate who actually have very, very
similar interests and actually want the
same thing, but they articulate such
different ways. and we're like, "What if
it didn't matter what color shirt you
wore and what color shirt I wore, but we
talked about like some of these issues
as like humans. What kind of things
would we actually agree on?" And that's
kind of was what really sparked Middle
Ground as a show.
So, that's not the way that we come up
with every show. We don't go to prison
every time and say, "Hey, what?"
Imagine that's the case. Be like, "Hey
man, we're out of ideas. Let's go to
prison today. See what they're doing."
Yeah. See what they're up to.
Some of the way we come up, this might
be fun. Um, we really think about
creating new shows as creating IP, but
we almost think about it in a startup
perspective. So, I don't know if you
guys are familiar with like hackathons
and MVPs like in the tech space, but
hackathon, right, is like Google will do
like a 24-hour hackathon where they'll
be like, "Hey, everyone go and spend 24
hours to build a a tech product." And
that's where like Google chats came from
or something like that. We said, "Okay,
what if we actually do like regular
hackathons within our company?" So, like
these used to be 24 hours. We don't do
it 24 hours anymore because it's too
painful. But we'll have everyone just
drop what they're doing and for a day
say, "Hey, what if we can come up with a
thousand video ideas? What would that
look like? Good, bad, ugly, it doesn't
matter." Then we'll take a bunch of
those ideas. We'll ask a handful of
folks to MVP them. MVP standing for
minimum viable product, right? It's like
what is the minimum viable thing that
you can do to test whether this idea is
a good one or a bad one. So, for
example, like with Spectrum, we actually
had one of the guys who came up with the
idea, Michael, go into a room and he
took his iPhone and he drew lines on the
ground and said, "Hey, I'm going to ask
a series of questions." And at the time,
there was only three lines. And it was
like, "Oh, this is not very
interesting." So, he's like, "Oh, let me
draw two more lines." We got to five
lines. He shot all with the with his
iPhone. And when we watched back, we're
like, "Okay, there's something
interesting here." So, we kind of
iterated on that. So before we even like
rent a production space, bring on that
entire crew that you see, we've thought
about and we've tested to some degree
what that production will look like.
And it doesn't mean now it's going to be
100% successful, but at least we have
like a process for like weaning out bad
ideas and bad concepts. We try to be as
creative on one hand, but also as
framework or consulting as possible. In
another hand,
I have to say I really admire the
creativity that goes into your videos. I
think middle ground spectrum uh the
ranking attractiveness intelligence like
I would never have thought of that idea
but it's so good and it's simple and
it's easy to watch
anybody could comprehend it
and sometimes people will come some of
our creators will come with an idea I'm
like oh can we do that like you know but
I think that that's a good question that
we want to like be close to that line of
like we really want to make authentic
content that
sometimes provokes people but provokes
understanding for a good purpose.
Can you say something where you were
presented with an idea and you were
like, I don't know, that might be
crossing the line.
I'll give you a good scenario that I'd
be curious your guys' thought on, right?
For example, for us, we really want to
make sure that we're trying to be as
balanced as possible. So, Republicans
and Democrats is the easy one.
Um, with vaccines early on, there was
like a big debate about, you know,
vaccine vaccine hesitant. There's a
question that always comes up from some
of our like most empathetic but like
hardcore employees who are like would we
ever feature white supremacists
in a video? And then that kind of
becomes a really interesting and
difficult question of so what's the
purpose of that? Would we be platforming
a perspective that we think could be
harmful? Are we actually giving uh
empathy? But these are important
questions that we have to be asking
ourselves if we want to be provoking,
understanding, creating human
connection, right? I feel like from a
business standpoint, it's probably not a
good idea because you want to keep like
keep a clean record. Yeah. But I'm a big
fan of just airing out anything, right?
Like letting anybody say whatever and
then obviously I'm a firm believer like
whoever is the most moral, whatever the
most ethical argument is will always
win. So I'm a fan like you know give
whatever people opportunity to say
whatever. But
I don't I don't think there's no winning
or losing though. I think with something
like middle ground, let's just say there
is no winner or loser and there there's
I don't know two perspectives and you
let the viewer decide, but
I don't know if I would do a middle
ground on that.
Yeah, this would be like much of a
middle ground like that.
Okay, maybe that would No, it' be like
an ask me ask me anything. Yes, more
like
ask me anything would be better.
You know, there's not a right answer to
any of them to some degree. So that's
where we go back to like what is our
vision? Our vision at Jubilee is we want
to provoke understand and create human
connection. What are the values that we
have as a company? You know, like in
business school and they're like
mission, vision, values. I was like, I
don't know why that matters. And now I'm
like, oh, it matters so much to me now
because these are the ways that we're
going to make our decisions. And if you
ever disagree with me or with the
creative director or someone who's
having to make one of these decisions,
there will be a clear paradigm as to why
we've made that decision. That's not
just like, oh well, Graham said he
wanted to do that or Jack thought this
was a good idea.
Have you ever filmed something that has
not been aired,
like he just couldn't post it
all the time? Um, we probably don't put
out
over 10 to 20% of our content.
Really? That seems like a high
just because it wasn't like exciting or
multiple reasons. One, sometimes it's
not of the caliber. like it's just not
something that we feel like we're proud
to put out. So excellence is one of our
values. It's like if it's not excellent,
we don't want to put it out.
Um we have put out stuff that's not
excellent in the past, by the way. So um
but that's what we strive for. Other
times we feel like we've like
inaccurately portrayed or like
insufficiently portrayed one side. So
for example, if middle ground happens,
but one side just like they're not able
to articulate their points well or
personality comes out or like someone
drops out last minute, we get to fill in
and we're not feeling like we've
appropriately respected that kind of
point of view. Then sometimes we'll just
feel like, oh, it's too imbalanced.
Well, we're going to have to redo this.
We'll have to reshoot this. Those are
probably the two major examples. The one
video idea, by the way, that everyone
comments on, the one that I was on. You
got to get two groups of people
together. One self-made millionaires and
one that have inherited their money.
Oh, that's good.
I got to do that. That was the top
comment, I think, on a few of the
millionaire videos that you've done.
Can we have you back for that one?
Yeah. No, abs. I would love to.
Okay. Well, you guys here first. We'll
we'll we'll start that.
Yeah. I think that comment I've seen
more often than any other comment was
that idea. So, I got to represent the
comment section, by the way.
That's right. Smash the like button.
There we go. There we go.
You would probably get a lot of great
ideas honestly just going through the
comments going through every that's what
you should probably have somebody do go
through every single video and just read
the top 20 comments cuz I read all the
comments and some of the best ideas come
from people just sitting at their
computer this is a good idea and I was
like wow that is a really good idea
that's a great topic
yeah we had some really good topics come
that way as well yeah we have to do a
better job now of just like we get so
many just to like
find a way to to to make it happen. But
yeah, I agree.
Yeah, cuz they've got a really good
pulse on like what they want to see. And
chances are if it's got like 10,000
likes to it, then it's like you you
already know there's an audience for
that particular topic.
Y
Yeah.
Are you ever worried like you said about
you're putting three people against each
other in a middle ground or something
like that that like you said people
people's arguments can be poorly
portrayed? What if you did something
with like 50 people on both sides and
they had like blue and red shirts and
then you could do some like a spectrum
or something like that where that it
would lower the variance of how like one
population feels. Obviously, it'd be a
little bit more logistically
challenging. I feel like it could
I think it's a great idea.
Uh this idea of like social polling is
one that we've been toying with quite a
bit. Mhm.
Um, actually the cut um, Cut has a great
video series that they used to do called
Dirty Data
where they actually had like a POV
camera from the top and they would have
people like move based on what they
believe. They stopped making it. I'm not
sure why.
Sounds expensive.
It is expensive. Yeah. Think about how
many people you're paying. Yeah.
But um, I think it's a great idea as far
as like,
you know, I think a lot of times what we
don't want to do is we don't want to say
this is fact or this is fact or this is
correct or this is the correct. What we
want to be able to represent is
different people's experiences and
beliefs, right? So, it's not like, oh,
if everyone moves over here, that means
that this is right, but it's a great
snapshot right now of how people might
think or feel or believe. And you might
believe, oh, this is right, but wait a
second, everyone moves over here, maybe
I'm wrong. Like, when is the last time
we've really heard or seen in media like
folks kind of take accountability and be
like, I don't know, like I could be
wrong here or like, let me change my
perspective here. I think that's like
really important for us to model and
that's something that we hope happens
within even middle grounds it doesn't
always happen. Sometimes people are like
this is my point. I'm sticking to it.
But what I love is that coming off of
the set there are so many folks who end
up staying in touch and saying hey I'm
still in touch with
whatever that um gang member or I'm
still in touch with that police officer
and we have conversations all the time
though about X Y and Z. So that's like
our mission still kind of at work I
think. Are you ever worried about
someone signing up for an episode in
order to use that to gain like personal
clout or something like that? Like kind
of like Bad Baby did on Dr. Phil was
very strategic where you can act crazy
in order to get publicity from that. Or
let's say you have like conservatives
versus liberals. One liberal or one
conservative could join the other side,
right? And say that they are the other
person in order to make that population
look crazier.
I haven't thought about that second
scenario, but the first one I think
definitely makes sense. And I think
there are a lot of folks who want to be
in our videos just to become famous or
to get clout or followers. And I don't
know. I mean, I don't think that's a
reason we would not have someone in a
video as long as they're like portraying
their
their stands accurately. Conversely, I'm
really proud of the fact that a lot of
people end up having huge careers from
being in our videos.
For example, we had a guy who was in one
of our dating videos. Actually, it was
about like dating 10 musicians based on
like their music. And a guy got a record
label. like he got signed by wrong way.
I think I know there was one guy who was
really really really talented and all
the I don't think did he get picked? I
don't think he didn't get picked but
why did he get picked?
It's all about you know it's a personal
choice but yeah people were like this
guy's amazing.
I think I remember that
the mount that he played was actually
not very long and it was incredible but
we saw like we've had that happen. We've
had people fall in love and get married
and have
tell us about that.
Jack, you got to get on this.
Oh my Yeah. Put me on my go. We got some
big stuff coming actually. That's
something I can share about.
This has happened on multiple accounts.
Actually, we've had even fans meet each
other and get married as a rel because
they just love Jubilee content. They
were both in our Facebook group. They
met each other. They're uh they met San
Francisco in Australia.
Wow.
Long distance. They would watch content
together. They just became friends and
then now they're married. Um so we have
crazy stories. We've also had folks like
quit their job, become full-time
YouTubers, influencers, all of that. Um,
so it's been really fun because I don't
know, it feels like we get to shine a
light hopefully on good folks who are
like living their life and and pursuing
what they're passionate about.
Now, you have a really interesting uh
fiance story. Did you have you done the
wedding yet?
We have. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I
your your invite I there was one video
where you're like, "Oh, if I get invited
to the wedding."
Oh, that's right. It was the reaction to
uh Millennial Money.
I remember seeing that. We're going to
talk about that as well. Yes. Uh, my
wife and I, we're married now, but
I must have lost the invite. It's okay.
That's right. That's right. It was co
Yeah. Yeah. Whatever.
I know you were moving to Vegas. And,
um, my wife and I Okay. The way that we
met was my wife Mel, she was formerly a
reporter for Yahoo Finance. So, she
would like just do a bunch of interviews
with CEOs and investors, all that stuff.
And when I was on Facebook one day, I
was like scrolling through and literally
a ad popped up, a video ad. And you
know, usually I'm just like, "X out,
keep scrolling." But it was an
interview. It was an advertisement for
Wealthfront.
It was an interview with the CEO and it
pans back to the reporter and it's like
this beautiful like brilliant woman
asking all these really good questions.
I'm like, "Oh my god, she's amazing." So
I click in, I watch the video, think
nothing of it. Next day I come back, the
same ad is kind of fed to me. And this
happens multiple times in a row. And
like, hm,
it's cuz you clicked it.
Did it? Well, yeah. my mind's like, "Oh
my god, God wants me to meet this girl."
So, her name pops up obviously in the
lower third like Melody Ham. I Google
her. I find her on Twitter, find out
like she's Korean-American. I'm
Korean-American. I'm like, "Ah, this is
fate." You know, she loves like R&B.
She's blah blah blah. Turns out she's in
New York. But I decide I want to tweet
her. Um, and I just said, "Hey, big fan
of your work. This is like a public
tweet." And I like linked one of the
articles. Hey, this is a great article.
She was, oh, thank you. We just become
friends on Twitter. That was the extent
of it. Um, and because I lived in New
York, I would go back every once in a
while, actually for a wedding. And when
I was there, I asked her to grab coffee
and she was, "Okay, sure." It ended up
being that we ended up grabbing drinks.
And that night, we sp essentially spent
the whole night walking around New York
City. Uh, first bar we closed at like
3:00 p.m. 3:00 a.m. Next bar close at
5:00 a.m.
It's crazy. Bars closed at 5. Did you
not
a holiday weekend? Yeah, the thing I did
have to do was catch my flight in the
morning at like 8:00 a.m. So, I remember
like the sun was coming up. I was like,
"Oh, [ __ ] man. I haven't packed." Yeah.
So, I was hoo I was in I was like, "This
is it. She's the one." I had never spent
a day like that or a first date like
that with anyone. So, we were texting
and you know, she was like super cool
and she didn't seem like super
interested per se. So, I was like,
"Okay, this is on my this is the ball's
in my court if I want to make something
happen." So, I was in Toronto for a
project and I told her, "Oh, I have to
be in New York for a week. Let's like
hang out." She goes, "Okay, sure." So, I
booked a one-way flight to New York
and I was on my buddy's couch said,
"Hey, I'm going to stay here for about a
week or two. Do you mind?"
Oh my god.
What about work?
Well, this was this was 2015
probably. So, this was right around
after the guys had left. I was like,
"No vision for Jubilee Project. I didn't
start Jubilee Media yet." Got it. Okay.
Um, as soon as I get to New York, I'm
texting her, "Hey, do you want to meet
up for coffee?" No response.
I kid you not, 3 days of no response.
I'm like walking around New York. I'm
like, I'm the stupidest guy ever. Like,
I'm starting to like look up flights.
Finally, she's like, "Hey, sorry things
have been so busy."
We end up, she's like, "I can meet you
one day for coffee." We meet up for
coffee. That went really well.
I'll make this short. Um, at that date,
I was like, "Hey, I've got tickets for a
Broadway show tomorrow. Do you want to
come?" and she goes, "Ah, I'll have to
move things around, but okay." Run to
the Broadway like ticketing office,
bought tickets,
smooth.
And then, um, at the end of the week, I
asked her to be my girlfriend. She said
no. Uh, but a couple of weeks later, she
said yeah.
Weeds right here. She
probably too soon, I'm guessing. Right.
Not only that, she didn't want to do
long distance. I was in LA. She was in
New York. She had done long distance in
the past. and she had come out of a
relationship relatively recently and she
was like really just enjoying her hot
girl summer I think
and I was like I don't know I see it I
see the vision here and she's like I do
not see it but um it ended up she went
to a Drake concert like I think had a
really good time and like came home
tipsy and called me I was like hey let's
do it I was like so
thank you she came back from the concert
and she was like
Drake wow I wonder
and she thought like okay this is this
is the guy now she had a revelation
there online.
So, that's what you got to do. Okay. If
there's a girl that you really like and
she kind of likes you, send her to a
herself to a Drake concert.
What happened to What happened to the
Drake concert? I'm so curious.
Just gets you in your feels, you know?
Is that it? That could be it. Yeah.
But, so now fast forward, it's
start from the bottom, now we're here.
There you go.
6 years later. Yeah. We got married uh
during COVID. So, 2020, we had our kind
of COVID wedding and then we had like a
real wedding.
Now, here's what I'm curious. You asked
her dad for his blessing.
Yeah.
And he said no.
Wow. This is a deep cut.
Yeah. What happened?
You did some good research. Wow.
Um Yeah. So Mel's father is a maestro in
Korea. He's like a conductor of an
orchestra. Amazing, brilliant man. Um
very fiery as you can imagine. And um
the day that I asked for permission was
actually her cousin's wedding. So Mel
was gone. She was like with the wedding
party the whole time. Um, he and I had
grabbed lunch earlier. Um,
and long story short, there was like a
series of events that like went terribly
wrong that like did not go the way I had
planned because I like, you know,
growing up I was always like the kid
that like parents were like, "Oh, he's
such a nice kid. Like he'll be, you
know, so I was just like not super
concerned. I was just like practicing my
lines in Korean. I wanted to like ask
properly." Mhm.
We ended up showing up to a lunch
um that the entire family was supposed
to be a part of, but everyone else had
to drop out except for the parents. So,
I was like, "Oh, this is my time." Um,
but I ended up being there like in a
t-shirt and shorts. And when I asked,
her father was like, "No, you you're
obviously not taking this seriously.
Like, why are you dressed this way? You
should be in a suit. If you're going to
ask me for my permission, it should be
way more formal." So, that was like the
start of a terrible day. Later, what
happens is we decide that we're going to
go to the wedding together from the
hotel.
Mhm.
I run down my suit super early. I'm like
5 minutes 5 10 minutes early. As as soon
as I sit down, I have like a small tear
in my pants. I'm like, "Shit, he's he's
going to be the one type of person who
will see it and be like, "Dude, this
guy's a scrub. Like, what's going on?"
So, I run to the front desk. I was like,
"Hey, do you have a sewing kit?" They're
like, "Yeah, we do." I'm like,
"Perfect." Run to the bathroom. I'm
starting to like sew it up. Get a call
in my room. They're like, "Where are
you?" I look at the clock. I'm like 3
minutes late. I'm like, "Shoot. come
back down, get in the car. He's like,
"Why are you late? Clearly, you're
irresponsible."
He said that to you.
I'm lazy. I don't like you for my
daughter. Yeah. And I was like, "Ah."
And I was like, "Ah, sorry. I forgot my
car." And he goes, "No, that's not
acceptable. Get out of my car."
No.
And I was like, "No, sorry." And I said,
"Okay, the truth is I had this tear in
my pants." So, all right, fine. So,
we're going
driving, driving, driving. Mom's in the
back seat. I'm in the front seat. You
know, I'm like navigating for him. Uh,
New Jersey highways. It's like very
rural.
Was your girlfriend your girlfriend was
not in the car?
No, she was at the wedding.
Slowly he's getting more and more angry.
He's kind of saying like, "Oh, in my
family this is not okay. I don't like
you. Blah, blah, blah. Like this, this,
and this reason you showed up to lunch
like super underdressed and you like are
late. I don't like this." It got to the
point that I started getting really
upset because I just felt like I was
getting bered. So, I very calmly said,
"I totally understand. I'm so sorry, but
in my family, like we don't talk to each
other this way." And when I said that,
opened the door. He kicked me out and
left me on the side of the highway and
left me. Yeah.
Are you serious?
So, I ended up Ubering to the wedding.
That became a whole thing, right?
Because then it was like
I was like preparing to buy to get the
ring.
I knew how I wanted to ask Mel to get
married. But it's it kind of caused like
a good series of conversations with
myself and with her first of all about
like if we're to be in a family, what
are we going to be like? You know, ask a
lot of difficult questions. me talking
with my parents, her talking with her
parents. Eventually, eventually I said,
"You know what? I'm going to ask her."
And lo and behold, like her dad has come
around like twofold and it was amazing
and was like, "What's so happy?"
So, what was the conversation you had
with your girlfriend at the time? Did
you tell her about these conversations?
Be like, "Hey, did Oh, she knew about
it. He probably did. He tell her
afterwards."
No. In fact, she was like, "Oh, I've you
know, he's an incredible person, but
he's um very I would say like he's
pretty idiosyncratic, like his
personality type." So, every time she
would tell me about him, I didn't really
understand. But then I experienced it
myself. It actually gave me a tremendous
amount of empathy for for like her and
what her upbringing was. So, in a lot of
ways, I think it was like very
um positive actually in retrospect.
Okay. Was she okay getting married
without her dad's permission or did you
wait then until you got her dad's
permission and then you proposed?
You know, once I proposed and she said
yes, her dad was like, "Oh, I'm so
excited." And at the wedding, his speech
was the best because he essentially
says, "You know, all this time I this is
my only daughter. It's her their only
child."
Yeah.
I was This is a series of tests I wanted
to put you through and Jason, you've won
is what he said at the end of his
speech. Do you think they were test?
It sounds like you're a little
I mean he he's he's awesome now. So we
we get along really well. The I'll tell
you the first time I met him,
this was far before the lunch.
I literally I meet him and he's like,
"Hey, I'm a big soccer fan. Are you a
big soccer fan?" I go, "Oh, you know, I
watch, but I don't really play." He
goes, "Let's go to the field. We'll like
play some soccer." I go, "Oh, cool."
Like just the two of us. Yeah. He shows
up. He's got cleats on. He's got like uh
goalie gloves. I go, "Oh, we're going to
play soccer." So soccer. He goes,
"Yeah." And he goes, "We're going to do
a series of um penalty kicks and if I
beat you, you can't date my daughter
anymore."
Oh.
And I'm like, "Oh my god." You know,
this guy, he's like pulling out. He's
prepared.
So, and Mel was there. She's just
laughing. She thinks it's hilarious. I
get down four to one um in the series.
So, we're doing the five. I'm down four
series. Four to one. I'm like, "Crap."
Like if I lose five to one, I'm like,
"This is bad. Bad." I came back 44. He
ends up beating me 5'4, but he's like,
"You know what? I see a lot of
resilience in you. Good job. You can
still keep dating." Like, this is
obviously a joke.
Wow.
Could be a good test, though. If you
make it so unbearable for the boyfriend
that if he leaves, you know, he's not
one to stick around. But if he does it
anyway and and he perseveres, then he's
someone who will work through those
issues.
If you have a daughter, would you put
her future boyfriend through any test? I
don't know how I would be. I would
What's your credit score? That's all
you'd ask. I would always joke about I'd
like to think that. I don't know. I
don't know how much. What percentage of
your income are you saving?
I feel like I would play a lot of jokes,
you know, just like make it make it just
like unbearable.
The credit card statement would come up.
I see you're spending $7 on coffee a
day. How much do you think it would cost
you to make your own coffee?
Yeah.
Did you guys buy a house yet?
We did. We bought a house. We bought a
house. Um, when was this that we closed?
probably in March or April. South LA,
but yeah.
Can you can you tell us like the city?
Yeah, we're like near L Mer Park. Okay.
Like west of USC.
Yeah.
Well, I know you're in Vegas now.
Yeah.
How how's that been?
It's It's really nice. I honestly I I
have never imagined that I would live
there to be like if you told me 3 or 4
years ago, never would have thought I'd
want to live in Vegas.
Uh until I found like two really nice
communities. Both Henderson and
Summerland are fantastic and everyone is
so friendly. It's one of the few places
where I could be like walking down the
street and like someone's driving by. I
don't even know this anybody uh driving
by, but they'll just wave.
They'll say hi, I'll say hi back.
Everyone is so friendly. You see the
same people at the community gym at the
same times are always there. It's just
like it's a really nice friendly place.
And I think it's because you get people
from around the country that maybe are
from areas where they're more open.
The reason I ask is because I think
community is so important, right? like
who do you surround yourself with?
Especially as creators when like you
have to be able to find a place to go
back to the well and when you feel like
dry creatively I think you need to find
folks who are not even doing the same
type of content or same type of business
but they're excited about what they're
doing and that can get kind of give you
inspiration or like help kind of fill
your tank so to speak.
Yeah. I had a pretty terrible neighbor
at uh West Adams. She was she was a lady
who's been there for probably 50 to 60
years. And I went over to introduce
myself and I remember I brought her a
bottle of wine. I I think I got her some
like some snacks and I I really wanted
to make good with the neighbors cuz I
was remodeling that house and I was
probably going to spend like five 6
months fixing it up.
I didn't want there to be any, you know,
any animosity. And I I will never forget
the one of the first things she told me
is make sure you you don't put your
trash cans out front of my place. You
got to put your trash cans in on this
side, not in front of And she went off
because I guess the person who lived
there before would put the trash cans
like in the driveway and it was kind of
like on her side and she wanted to make
very clear that my trash cans went out
in front of mine and not hers.
And since then it has been a struggle.
Like I never want to do anything to
provoke her. But like sometimes I'll
I'll do anything and she'll just blip
off. Like um
there was a time where I forget what it
was. It's in the backyard doing
something and so she purposely took
water and started spraying my car. I
forget what it was.
What were you doing?
I don't know what I was doing or
something. No, I No, I'm so quiet.
I forget what it was. The
worst.
Yeah. Now the worst was that I had a
driveway where it was basically my
driveway and then right next was her uh
front yard. So the I mean maybe there's
like a foot in between my car and her
front yard. And I had a service
technician come to do like a inspection
of my car before I returned it as a
lease. And the guy was kind of like
standing on her side of the yard and she
comes out and turns on the sprinklers.
No.
Yeah. Gets him soaking wet and he had
his iPad laying down there for like, you
know, for the for the car company and
just sprays all of us. and we're telling
her like, "Hey, we're just out here.
Like, we're not being noisy, nothing.
Didn't care. Just turned on the
sprinklers."
Uh there's been so many instances where
she has just been so just awful. She's
screamed at us before. Oh, there was one
time, too. It was raining right before
like right when CO was announced and we
were moving some stuff in the rain, 8:00
p.m. at night, and she complained that
we were being too loud in the driveway.
And then we literally just closing doors
and stuff like that in the rain. It's
horrible.
The thing about neighbors is like when
you have a bad neighbor, it can just
like ruin everything about your living
experience. I'm curious, what are your
thoughts on like what is the premium or
depreciation of an asset based on like
how good of a neighbor is? Would you say
like how much weight would
The thing is, I don't feel like it it
makes the value of the property go up.
Like a good neighbor's worth more, but
it can certainly negatively impact it
because you got to think too while
you're selling. Imagine a prospective
buyer like parks in front of her house
and she comes out and yells at that
person. It's over,
right?
There was a house at the bottom of the
street that I grew up in and they were
or there was a lot and they were
building these two really tall homes
right next to each other and across the
street there was a small singlestory
house and they put up probably like a
12tx 5t uh like board and spray painted
on if you buy these houses you'll see us
naked in our bathroom through a glass
window. They did that to try to deter
prospective buyers from the house.
Ended up being a selling point though
for months.
There's someone in the buying months
obviously. And
yeah, and that's it.
Dude, that's so stressful.
Yeah.
I don't know something about buying a
home. I think that like a lot of like
human instinct come out in good and bad
ways. I find I'm becoming like a lot
like my dad. Like I walk around like
putts around in the yard or like
I just love grilling now. I don't know.
I'm like, "Oh, I love meat." But there's
something also just about like I own
this land and therefore I don't know it
makes me bummed when I see that version
of it. Whereas I think there's a
beautiful version of it where I've seen
a lot of my friends who have bought
homes who are like this is a space I
want to build community in right or like
we try to have like you know dinner
parties at our place where like hey come
on over like we're going to cook for
everyone and we can finally do that
because we have a home. So um I'm bummed
to hear that though. Is everything okay?
Do you have tenants at that house?
Yes. Fortunately they're fine. They've
never mentioned it. Nothing.
No, I mean I I think they they follow
some of her rules like for the trash
cans and things like that. But yeah,
thank thankfully the tenants who are
there now are amazing. I really like
them a lot.
Yeah, that's good. That's good.
Small chance they're watching this. I
don't think so.
And to the women as well. It's like,
hey, we're just sending you love. We'll
make sure we take care of the trash. No
worries.
Speaking of love, you were mentioning
love. Um well, actually, what is your
what is your relationship status? What
where you I'm single. It's complicated.
Just single, purely single.
How are you finding love life in Vegas
versus LA?
I don't know if there's much of a
difference. I think in Vegas there's a
lot more people coming and going,
whereas LA there's a lot more people
living there.
Um, in LA, honestly, I didn't really I
didn't like go on many dates, you know
what I mean? Because like I was very
busy at that period of time in my life,
whereas now, you know, I can go on
dates, but I still don't necessarily go
on a lot of dates.
Are you Are you on the apps?
Yeah. Oh, all of them. Yeah. Okay.
I only ask because we've been doing a
big deep dive in like the love space for
young people and what we're finding is
that like something like 50 million
Americans are on dating apps,
but the MPS score or like the net
promoter score for the dating app
industry is minus 25. Meaning the
majority of folks who are on apps are
very disgruntled with their app
experience. They're finding and when we
do these interviews, they're finding
that I'm spending a lot of time on the
app. A lot of times these won't
necessarily translate into real inerson
dates or it's been like it's not the
proper ROI or whatever like swiping
culture like a little fatigue of it.
So they're not getting dates. That's the
problem.
They're not getting dates or they feel
like maybe this is not even the right
way to even look for
Is that both male and female?
Um I think that we're seeing a little
actually both. Yeah, relatively both.
Okay. Um
cuz I I heard somewhere that I think
it's the top 5% of profiles were matched
with the vast majority.
Yeah, there is a and you might be part
of this. You're a good-looking guy. So I
feel like you might be in that group
that's like, "Hey, I'm having a great
time." But I think the majority of folks
are feeling like, "Oh [ __ ] like this
kind of sucks." The reason I asked that
though is because we're actually I don't
know when this podcast will come out,
but September 20th, we're launching a
new brand, a whole new channel
all around love. So all of our dating
content is going to go there and we're
actually starting to build even um
technology and like different things
that's going to
Are you going to create your own dating
app? Maybe
eventually that could be where we
Now how do you differentiate? Because I
feel like dating apps are a lot like a
good title thumbnail where you really
got to hone in. You can't just create,
you know, throw up a picture and expect
people to to match with you. I feel like
most people are really bad at describing
themselves and conveying who they are.
Completely agree. I know. Are you guys
um fans of like Neog or MyersBriggs?
Like
I've heard of the MyersBriggs like
horoscope, right? Horoscopes are big in
LA. There are all of these tools that we
use to like self-categorize ourselves
into personality. I'm an extrovert. I'm
an introvert. I'm like a thinker versus
a feeler, right? And what we found was
that like with relationship stuff,
there's a lot of different personality
types or even relationship beliefs, but
there's no good way to categorize them.
There is like love languages like I love
gifts
or acts of service
but that's not what leads to
compatibility but what we've been
working on
behind the scenes I guess this is
relatively public if I share this but um
is we've been working with a bunch of
data scientists and like relationship
scientists on what are actual
relationship beliefs that we have. So
for example, one of the criteria is like
a are you an I person or a we person,
right? And some people are I people.
Even if I'm in a relationship with my
wife, I may still go somewhere and I
don't expect her to come and I'm not
even wanting her to come. Sometimes
we're independent people. You do your
thing, I do your thing. We're still
partners, but we're I people. Some
people are we people, right? You know,
every time they show up, they're going
to show up with their partner. And
that's not good or bad.
The problem sometimes happens when
there's an I person with a Wii person.
Not that they're less compatible, but
they have to have that conversation.
I saw the look. I don't know if there's
an I or a we person here.
Very I'm very independent.
Okay. You're an eye person. Yeah.
And your partner?
Uh I would say
we Yeah. Yeah. She's a
we you have to have a conversation,
right, about like what does that look
like for you to be able to like does
that change how you
I feel like there's a bit of a give and
take, you know? Exactly.
She gives all
So we each have to give and take. I
mean, you know what I mean?
You know, there's a balancing act. She
gets I know.
So, what we're trying to build is
actually um almost like a personality or
a love assessment that we can all take
and just kind of identify
am I an I person or a we person? Am I
like intimacy? Am I more physical or am
I more emotional? None of these are
better or worse, but it's better to
understand ourselves. Yeah.
Because we actually
um might fit better initially with
someone who are more similar.
So, does it give you like a score like a
oh, it's 85% compatible or something
like that?
We're actually not even starting with
compatibility. We're starting with
individual assessment. So, you'll get
like um your own kind of like readout
on, hey, this is who you are.
Oh, interesting. So people will take a
quiz then they'll it'll spit back some
information of
and they'll be like you're a magenta and
this is why and this is what you should
be looking for and this is what you
should be thinking about.
So you give them some tools but you
don't match them based on that.
Eventually we'll go into matching but we
want to start with we actually think
that the not the problem but one of the
things that's broken with dating culture
is that people are not even critically
thinking about who they are in a
relationship or what they want in a
relationship.
So if we can kind of give some of those
tools
via the technology and via our content
eventually that we can actually lead to
better compatibility too.
So imagine if you're a magenta and I'm a
magenta like we might be more compatible
initially, right? So like that could be
good. Um or at least it'll give us good
framework to like have that conversation
of like, hey Jack, I know that you said
that you're like a physical intimacy
person, but I'm more of emotional
person, so I need more time where we
talk about stuff before we make out
whatever. This is all hypothetical, by
the way. Um, but yeah, we're excited to
launch all of this. It's gonna It's
called Nectar, the whole space, and
we're going to launch it in a couple
months.
It's called Nectar.
Nectar.
Why Nectar?
It's a decent name.
Yeah, I appreciate Fine.
That's good. I'm happy you didn't say,
"Oh, that's a terrible name."
You're like, "That's adequate."
No, no, I'm thinking I mean, I like the
name. It sticks out.
Nectar.
Yeah, Nectar.
It sounds like It sounds like a company
that you could one day sell for a lot of
money. That's what I'm thinkable
company. Yeah.
Um, I kind of think like love is like
the like the essence of life, right?
It's like the magic of life and if we
can like distill that down and like
purify it like that's how we kind of
think about nectar.
Are you going to also do that for
friends?
Yeah, I think relationships when we say
relationships um it shouldn't just be
about uh romantic relationships but I
think initially most of our content is
all going to be around like love
content. So I think people will
initially think about the assessment as
a love.
Are you taking investors?
We actually just raised another small
round of capital.
Did you actually? Yeah. I don't know if
you're serious. We can talk about
serious. Yeah, we can talk about it
separately. Yeah.
Um
because I think all the content would
revolve like at the end of the day,
Nectar,
so it seems like a lot of organic reach
that you've already built.
Exactly.
If you remember, we did a whole we did a
middle ground and we did a partnership
with a ground called Ground News and
they're like a news aggregating website,
but you can read any article and they'll
tell you like, hey, this article leans
like 73% conservative or this article is
like skewing 82% liberal. and we worked
with them to build a custom test, like a
news bias test where anyone could take
it. Takes 15 minutes um and it'll tell
you what your score is. But in the
episode of every video, it popped up. It
was like, "Hey, this is Jack. He's 23.
He's 72% liberal or his news bias is 72%
liberal, etc."
We plugged it into the video. The video
did relatively well, maybe a million,
million and a half views. Within a week,
we had 120,000 users of the test.
Wow. Right. Wow.
Zero customer acquisition cost. Zero
CAC. What if now we're building our own
product and technology that fits into
what people are interested in anyways
around love, politics, identity. That's
been the whole vision of what Jubilee is
going to become. We love making the
media content, but what young people
keep on wanting to do is they want to
like participate. They want to be in the
videos obviously, but what is we can't
do that. We can't put everyone in the
videos. What if we can actually build
deeper ways for people to engage and
actually participate in other ways? Love
is a great way to do that. You can
imagine, you know, dating events, dating
apps. You can imagine going back into
politics, political compass,
conversations, all that stuff.
How would it make money?
Dating is actually incredibly lucrative.
Um 50% of Tinder users are paying.
Mhm.
So that's Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You find more success there? I It's been
a long time since I've been on dating.
Uh, I would say I find more success if
I'm cuz I could I can like sort by like
for example people that like me. I can
see exactly who they are rather than
just continually swiping.
It's like not that much, right? Per
month. It's
Well, I have the I got that, you know,
the
premium version.
Well, hey, this is good. Let's
uh I don't I think it's like 90 bucks
per per six months or something like
that.
I thought you were going to say, too,
you know, Andre J.
I don't.
He's a finance YouTuber, one of the big
ones. He sold me on it cuz he said,
"Jack, if you're spending, let's say
theoretically, right, an hour per day
doing that, whereas you could now be
spending 10 minutes per day, it's, you
know,
No, I think that that totally makes
sense. And that's what I'm saying about
there's a problem right now because
people are spending hours on dating apps
with very low yield."
Don't they want that though? Isn't it
good for Tinder? Cuz I saw an article
somewhere absolutely wants that.
Yeah. That Tinder is programmed to keep
you on the app as long as possible.
Absolutely. There's always that like
next like hit of
but there's a problem if
it really is same with Tik Tok. It's
like not every video is viral.
They took after the casino logic there
where you don't want to do every win but
you want to keep it like staggered to
keep your brain always like on edge like
where's the next video?
Tinder I think is is probably similar.
But what if we could upend the entire
paradigm as to which even dating apps
exist? That's no longer even about swipe
culture, but there is some sort of
compatibility component or even
interaction that's not just like, "Hey,
what's up?" We've built a series of
different ways that humans can interact
through our shows that are fun and
entertaining and interesting. That's
like takes pressure off. We find like
there can be all these different ways
that people actually engage and like no
pressure like we're going to play the
game or we're going to like answer the
series of questions in an interesting
way. So, we've had a lot of excitement
about that. So, we raised a small round
from mostly tech investors because the
one thing we haven't done well before is
we've never built anything tech based.
So, um
it's probably going to be way more
expensive than you think and take way
longer.
Yeah. So, we're going to kind of try to
how do we MVP this as well, right?
Meaning, how do we actually show
traction and gain a lot of users without
doing the full thing? There's a way to
kind of do it in a lowfi way. That's
going to be a big part of the approach.
That's exciting. And what's your end
goal with that?
Like let's say you build it up and it is
successful, it's working.
What if Jubilee could be the home for
all human connection? Full stop. We grew
up in a time where like Facebook is all
about social connection and making
friends. But the truth is we're not
making friends on Facebook. We're not
really even making friends on Instagram.
It's not built for that. What I think is
happening right now is that young people
in particular, Gen Z, even though
they're more connected than ever,
they're actually more lonely than ever.
And what we want to do is we want to
find ways through our content to bring
people together, but now through
technology to do that too. And maybe
even one day in person. Like we actually
right before co we're starting to do
something called um the empathy
warehouse where we would have different
rooms and every room would be like
pretty intense like social experiment
that you're kind of like, "Oh [ __ ]
we're going to do this." But it created
this incredible like you know that
kismmet feeling when you're like on the
subway or you meet someone, you're like,
"Man, that was like such a cool
conversation. I think that we're just
longing for that and we need that. I
think there's there's a way for us to
create spaces for that to happen. So,
that's kind of the big vision of
Jubilee. That's why as we think about
becoming that cruise ship or that, you
know, that unicorn, that's what we would
have to become. Um, but we feel like
we're kind of like well on our way
towards that.
That's really cool.
Yeah. Appreciate it.
Are there any video ideas that you've
wanted to do? You just don't have the
funding to do it.
Maybe it's just too expensive.
I really like that show on Netflix, Love
is Blind.
Yeah,
I loved that show. Love is Blind was
good. Love on the Spectrum is good.
Oh my gosh. I We Macy and I watched I
think all three seasons. It's one of the
It was It is the most heartwarming show.
Yeah. You You kind of see that and you
see like oh, there's a way to do reality
television in a way that's actually like
meaningful.
Yeah.
Without being terrible um or corny.
Sorry. What are these shows?
Oh, Love on the Spectrum. If you did a
version of Love on the Spectrum. Oh my
gosh. So they they had people pair up uh
that are on the autism spectrum ranging
from you know severe to you know high
functioning mild and they follow their
stories, their interests and their
complications with dating. And I think
what makes it so relatable is that
everyone I feel like has had those
experiences where you walk up like
you're nervous and the guy's literally
looking at the camera like I don't I
don't have anything to talk about
anymore. I don't know what to say. They
come back and they're just like, "So,
the weather is nice." And they're like,
"Yep." And it's silence. But I think
everyone just understands that. But it's
but it's heartwarming cuz it's so
genuine
and um they're so open with how they
feel. Even though it might be difficult
for them to talk about that, it's really
you got to watch it. Okay.
It's one of the few shows where you feel
better after watching it.
Got it.
It's weird to describe, but it's it's
it's just hard. Like you feel good after
watching it. It's really nice. Yeah,
it's fun. And you've seen the other one,
Love is BL?
I haven't even heard of that.
It's where individuals will first meet
and they'll actually like fall in love
without ever seeing each other and then
they'll like choose an individual and
even like propose to each other, having
never seen each other. So like is love
really blind is like kind of the thesis.
How do they make that happen?
They're in like pods that are like you
can see silhouette, but you can't
actually see individuals, but they're
doing it over the course of like weeks
or days or
and then they marry each other after
weeks.
They have to propose to meet each other.
Holy macker. The gimmick is pretty
pretty strong.
What do you think the divorce rate is of
not you know cynical or anything?
I think the success rate was pretty low
actually. So
I don't Yeah, some of the couples they
they followed up with and I'm like that
is a train wreck relation. They seem it
really they seem so unhappy, but they
stay together maybe because of the show
and because because they gain they've
gained no not but they've gained so much
popularity as a couple that they've
turned that into they're all influencers
now.
Wow.
All of them. I mean, you can't work a
normal job and then be on Love is Blind,
one of the hit Netflix reality TV show.
You get millions of followers and be
like, well, I'm going to still work at
my job for, you know, 80 grand a year.
You're going to make a million dollars a
year just being an influencer.
But, yeah, doing a doing an episodic
dating show is something we've been
really interested in. So, that's
something that we've been toying with
and doing it the right way. The problem
with a lot of existing reality shows is
like if you look at the behind the
scenes of like what the producers are
making individuals do, it's like so
gnarly.
For example, there's a show called um
Have you heard of The Ultimatum?
No.
It's like Graham and I are in
relationship. I want to get married, but
Graham's never going to propose to me.
We're going to go on the show and either
he's going to propose to me or we're
going to break up and we're going to
switch partners with someone else. So,
I'm going to choose someone else for six
weeks. At the end of that, either I will
choose to marry this person or I'm going
to marry Graham or he was going to
decide.
Oh my god.
But apparently what they did, what the
producers did was when they signed up
for the show, they didn't know that
there was an ultimatum even involved.
Oh.
And they said, "You guys, like," and as
they were starting to film, they were
like, "You guys have to have an
ultimatum. Graham is the one who does
not want to get married. Jason, you're
the one who wants to get married." So,
you know what I mean? Like, they're put
into this scenario in such a false way
that you're like, "Well, the whole
premise,
it's all flawed then, right? if this is
all a charade like no one's coming into
this like with real authentic and then
and then everything falls apart in my in
my point of view but I think that we can
make great shows like I don't know if
you guys have seen a Terrace House
it's a show that started in Japan but
it's like so raw authentic like feels
like no production is touching it just
like living their life and it's just
done in such a beautiful way that it
became really popular but um speaking of
reality TV shows I I feel like I've seen
you uh in a episodes of selling sunsets.
I didn't I I I don't think I had pieced
together what had happened, but what was
the backtory there? Or are you working
in the show or part of the show or part
of the group?
No. So, when they approached Jason, I I
forget exactly how it went down, but uh
they filmed a pilot. Okay.
And I was in the pilot episode
of the first season.
Of the first season, and they cut me out
pretty quick. Uh I think there there are
two drama.
Yeah, there were two things that
happened. I think uh they wanted me to
to fill that spot of drama of like what
do you think of Christine? They they
would ask me questions of like each
person I worked with, what do you think
of Heather? Heather's great. I like her
a lot. What do you think of Christine?
She's awesome. Mary's are really hard.
Like I I didn't say anything negative
about anybody.
Uh and also I knew that they would see
this. So it's not like why would I say
anything bad about anybody if they're
Did you tell that they wanted you to say
or would they even lead you towards that
or not?
Uh a little bit. They would uh they
would say, "So, you know, do you go out
to clubs a lot? How do you spend your
money? Are you flashy?" Like things like
this where I think they wanted me to
become like this playboy who clubs every
night, who's dissing on everyone I'm
working with and like living that sort
of lifestyle.
I couldn't do that. I mean, that's not
me. And so, they made it pretty quick
that they I was cut out of that. But
then I think they realized the dynamic
between the, you know, the women in the
office was way more interesting to focus
on that than
Yeah.
me. I mean, I'm not going to say
anything bad. Uh, and that was around
the time, too, where um the YouTube
channel was beginning to actually gain
some traction. I think maybe I had
20,000 subscribers at the time. And I
remember kind of thinking between the
two like, "What if they asked me to be
on it? Like, would I give up the
channel?" I was like, "No, I wouldn't
give up the channel." Were you you were
working with the group though prior to
the show even starting?
Yeah. Yeah. So I joined the Oppenheim
group I think 2014 or 15. I can't
remember.
Okay. And you're still with them?
Uh no. So when I left California, I also
left the brokerage.
A great episode though. You walk in,
you're like, Jason, I'm done. I'm moving
to Vegas.
Yeah. Well, I mean it happened
organically. Um I would I would still be
in the office 5 days a week, but as the
channel began doing better and better
and better, I just slowly, you know,
stopped taking on as many clients. If
there's a client that would take a lot
of time, I'd pass them off to someone
else in the office. I slowly scaled
back. So, it was never like an abrupt
stop. But yeah, when when co hit was the
time where like nobody was doing any
showings. Open houses stopped entirely.
And when you were home, I'm like, well,
I'm going to just make YouTube videos.
This is I'm I'm going to go 100% in
this. And then pretty quickly, I
realized like, wow, this is what I want
to do. There was one scene, it was the
first season,
um, where I saw all the cameras pointed
in one direction. I'm like, I'm going to
sit there cuz cuz I I felt like I got no
screen time. So, I'm like, I'm going to
sit right there. And it turned out that
was the where like some drama went down
and I'm just You just see me sitting
there and just kind of like observing. I
had no idea what was going on. I had no
idea what anything was about, but I
Yeah,
but I was able to get there. Yeah.
Insane though, huh? Like there's so many
people who watching Sunset I know. It's
crazy. We had no idea how successful
that was going to be. And I remember the
the first season that came out, it got
kind of mixed reviews in the very
beginning.
Um, some people really disliked it. They
thought it was in poor taste. Other
people really loved it.
Um, I think when season 2 and three came
out was when it really started to shine.
And I think because just everyone who
was being filmed, all the cast just got
more comfortable being around cameras,
like being filmed. And I think I mean,
maybe I'm I shouldn't be speaking for
them. I'm guessing maybe they let their
guard down a little bit more. Yeah.
Um, season 2, three, and four that
people got a real sense of like who they
are and what they're about. And
how do you feel about the portrayal of
the different characters? Do you feel
like it's pretty appropriate, fair?
Yes. I mean, I guess the only thing that
I think is that they film I've seen how
much they film and so you can only show
so much
in I don't know, eight 1 hour episodes,
but they'll be filming for months,
right? And so you take months of stuff
and condense it down to like the moments
that are the best, like the the
highlight.
Yeah. And it resonates with their
character as like this type of person,
right?
So for all of us, I'm sure like over a
month, we have 1 hour of highlights that
are just like the best that make it seem
so excit. But when you add in all the
other stuff, like you could just as
easily edit it down to be like, I do
nothing but stay home and watch YouTube
videos or wow, I'm traveling every day.
It's so crazy. So you could probably
narrate whatever direction and it's up
to them but they got to do something
that people want to watch.
Unscripted space which folks would call
us in the unscripted space but the way
that they approach content can be
radically different too. So we've seen
some like bad actors and we've seen some
like amazing people and we're trying to
like
you know how do you navigate both
creating something that's entertaining
to watch but is also authentic or real
like that can be a really difficult
challenge to that need. I wanted to ask
you what your experience with millennial
money was because I know that's
something we both were a part of. But
that's right
cuz I did I did mine Did I do mine
before yours or I think mine after
yours. Yeah.
Well, I have I had two millennial
monies. The the first one
Okay.
Yeah. The first one was fantastic. It
was when Jessica was in charge of that
and she was meticulous. I mean, you
could tell when somebody is so sharp and
like on it and she was that person. She
was the one
asking the difficult questions.
Yeah. Well, she was just her vision, her
shots, what she wanted was so clear and
good. It was like so aligned with
exactly what I believed should be done.
And my experience with her was a 10 out
of 10. Um, and she was responsible for
all the early millennial monies.
And you could tell all of those were
just like hit after hit after hit after
hit. The second one I felt um I I wished
it had her attention to detail on it and
she had temporarily stepped back because
she had a child and so I had a good
experience but nowhere near the level
that I had with Jessica.
What was the difference between the
first and the second as far as just the
angle?
Oh man, it was um
I mean the shot
kind of Yeah, it was kind of co Yeah, it
was kind of around the co time. So, I
think they they hired out some of the
people and they were contractors and it
just was it didn't hit. And there were
there were a lot of suggestions that I
wanted to do, but I didn't want to get
in their way, but then I saw the shot.
I'm like, that's a terrible shot. The
lighting is awful.
Um,
I didn't like the angle that they took
with it. Um, but then again, nothing is
ever as magical as the first time you do
it. So, it's like, how do you live up to
that? I would never expect to surpass
that first one. It was so good. I only
asked because I find that the millennial
money audience is like very strong.
Like I'm just I I wasn't super familiar
with I had seen several but I didn't
realize that people just love watching
these millennial monies and like
understanding how people use their money
and how people make their money. When I
first been approached to do it similar
to you with Jubilee, I was like I don't
know why I would do that. I'm not sure
like why would I show my finances. I was
like this feels very deeply personal.
And then later I was like, "Oh, actually
this would be really um an interesting
exercise just to show even my team like
how much money does Jason make, right?
Like how did how is this money spent
even?" So
yeah, I had an interesting uh intro with
them. Yeah.
So I was introduced to them because I
was reacting to their videos. They would
post a video
and then two days later my reaction
would post on their video
and in the in well for a lot of those
videos my reactions would get more views
than their videos were. Y
and so I did this for months and that's
really how I grew that second channel
was just off of them and you know I
don't know I got an email from them and
I remembered like oh my god they just
emailed me this is crazy and I got on a
call and I don't know if I was speaking
with Jessica I think I may have been
but she was saying so do you intend to
keep going with these uh videos and I'm
like yeah they're doing really well it
was something like oh yeah I guess
that's the YouTube thing to do like I
don't think she was exactly happy that I
was cuz you could tell and I could tell
too. She poured her heart and soul into
these videos
and to have me come on and like take
views from that and then add silly
commentary about the people spending. I
don't think cuz for her I think it was
like it was a piece of art that she was
creating and I see that vision and it's
like what's up you guys? Welcome back to
the show. Let's see what this you know
it's just I don't want to say poking fun
at it but it was definitely taking a
very light-hearted approach to something
that she took very seriously and I
understood that. And then she asked if I
wanted to be on it. I was like, I can't
say no. But
you didn't want to.
I You were like really 5050 on it.
Yeah. The reason why was because I felt
like they would do something because I
was
like negative or portraying a certain
way.
And they're going to be like, "We'll get
back at Graham for this uh for, you
know, reacting to our videos and doing
all the so and and I mean because I was
really into SEO, like I wanted to rank
on millennial money." Yeah. And so all
of mine would have millennial money in
the title. So when you typed in
millennial money, like my videos came up
first before theirs.
And so it was like all these just silly
tricks, but you know, I wanted to rank
first. I thought it was entertaining
content. I enjoyed it. I was happy to
talk about it. I felt like, you know,
they would have all my info and they
could spin it what like similar to to
Netflix or with Jubilee, too. Like you
could they could edit in whatever the
way they wanted. I didn't want to be
portrayed as like maybe someone who was,
you know, I don't know. Just
after that, did you continue? Do you
continue? Are you still doing the
Millennial Money reaction?
Yes.
Not too much. Not as much.
Well, my experience was with filming
them was fantastic. When I saw the
episode, they showed it to me the night
before. I loved it and they did such a
fantastic job. And then after that, I'm
like, anything I could help Jessica, I
mean, I'm forever grateful for them. Um,
I don't know if they I see I'm probably
too uh too arrogant to think that like
they did this because of me, but all the
videos became too positive and not that
good to react to after a while.
Yeah. And everyone has a YouTube
channel. It's like a joke now coming on.
It's like, oh, guess what? They got a
YouTube channel. And it it just became
not as fun. Like the beginning episodes
were so good because
uh sometimes I felt like the the people
were so bad with their money. And that's
what kind of made it enjoyable. They
were making a lot. they were spending a
lot and the expenses were so out there.
But now it's like went to college
without any debt, uh joined the
military, started a YouTube channel,
saved all the money,
right? It's like I I can't say a single
negative thing about the people who are
on now. And it makes it less fun to
react to just because there's nothing I
could poke at. There's nothing they're
doing wrong. Everything is perfect.
There's only so many times I could say,
"Hey, this person is perfect. Great
example. Keep doing your thing." Well,
this is why I I've always felt and I
think we've talked about it. You talked
with folks on my team about it like you
would be such a good host for that kind
of a show
that like where you're doing like um
that's right,
you know, evaluate my finances kind of
thing.
I remember you guys reached out a while
ago.
Make that happen. I think that there's
such a avenue for it. Not only because
it's entertaining because it is, but
there's a lot of financial education
that happens that way, right? It's not
just like let's [ __ ] on this person
because they don't know how to like
balance their books. It's like, "Oh,
wait a second. My finances look like
that, too. How do I actually learn from
someone who's more experienced and can
kind of help me like walk through a lot
of that?" So,
yeah, hopefully we can make that happen
one day.
I'd be open to that. It's just hard with
it with such a tight schedule, finding
time to film, and then getting those
shots. I am so particular about like
what's shown, where, getting all the
shots, and then taking a day's worth of
footage, and there's 15 minutes, and
like that's the maybe 20.
I totally get it. It's funny you talk
about even like the the reaction stuff
because we're on the other side of it
where so many of our videos are reacted
to or mimicked.
So good for you. Yeah.
Which is great. Yeah. Well, for a while
there was like an internal debate of
like, oh, is this good? You know, like
we can monetize or we can claim it if we
want. We actually don't do that for a
lot of videos because we're like, you
know what, we want them to like
whatever. Once it's on the internet,
it's no longer ours only.
And if someone's mimicking our content
or like replicating it, we're like, hey,
that's a good sign. It means that like
we've built something great,
but early on I don't know if you've ever
had anyone like kind of like mimic I'm
sure like copy your style for sure,
right? How do you deal with that when
you see
at this point you don't it's become a
bit of a joke between us now like an
inside joke that uh we predict certain
you know topics will come up and usually
it's like oh Jack right on schedule and
you know but you know what at the
that's a good sign right
there's no yeah some sometimes it feels
like cuz I spend so much time on YouTube
um it's really hard to find like topics
and things that do well. Um, but you
know, at the end of the day, it just
means that there's interest in that. So,
yeah, that's
But yeah, what was it like having
PewDiePie react to your videos?
Dude, that was insane. It I never
thought that someone of that magnitude,
let alone the biggest YouTuber, would
ever be seeing, let alone reacting to
our content. So, when that started
happening, it just like blew up all of
our socials. Like, our audience was
growing. And I think that's when I
started to realize there was a a shift
in what was happening with Jubilee. That
we were no longer like a niche channel
that people may not have heard of, but
now like it felt like anyone who was
spending any time on YouTube at least
had seen one of our shows. They may not
know the name Jubilee, but they've seen
something that we've made, which was in
insane.
You try to keep your persona fairly
incognito. Not that I intentionally do
it, but I always knew that if it was all
about me or Jason is has to be in every
video that we would not be able to
scale. So early on I was like, "Okay, it
has to be about Jubilee or it has to be
about the show. Otherwise, I'm going to
have to be on every episode or I'm going
to have to be on every set." And we're
not going to become a unicorn that way.
We're not going to become a scalable
startup. So when you ask me about like,
"Hey, are you ever on set?" I'm rarely
on set now. And I see it as like a wow
that's crazy, but also that means that
we can do so much more. So
do you guys because I know you you have
had people that are recurring in your
episodes. Do you try to build up certain
personalities within your company or not
really? That's
it wasn't like a strategic thing of
like, oh Jack, he's a star, we're going
to make him a star. Um it's more when
there are folks that we just love both
like as a cast member like how working
with them, but also how they show up in
audience resonates. we like to bring
them back. I think dating is actually a
good example of that. Like we had uh a
lot of folks who were like eliminated
early for whatever reason, but like
there's they didn't get their time to
shine. I like that
they come back and you're like, "Oh,
this is the hero." And people recognize
them. They're like, "Gh, finally just
justice for Jack." You know,
has there ever been a fight in like a
middle ground or a spectrum or something
like that where people like, you know,
fist fight?
Yeah.
Luckily, no. You know, there have been
episodes where honestly we've been
nervous. We had an episode of
Middleground where we brought together
four or five different rival LA gangs
onto the set
and you know we were not super familiar.
So we had done a bunch of research but
we're like this could be really
difficult or bad and they were on set
and they were amazing and they had this
incredible conversation and they were
like dapping each other up and it it was
like okay wow this is awesome. And then
there have been other episodes with
random
participants who get very competitive,
like very difficult, and we're like,
where did this come from? This was
supposed to be like a very easy episode.
Um, so that's that's tricky because
there's like a lot of potential
um burden or like emotional trauma like
that can happen on set that we're like
very wary of. So, it's something that
we're like a lot more cognizant about
like do we need security of her? Like,
do we need therapists? like how do we
even like deal with some of these
complicated issues? But luckily, no. No
fights, no broken arms, nothing. Yeah,
probably should have one security guard,
right? Like somebody now. Yeah. Now we
uh we've got a a security guard for
difficult issues. Yeah.
What is like the big vision for for this
podcast? Where does this go in
to take it mainstream? That's the goal.
Yeah. We want to get on people outside
of like the YouTube space. I want to get
like musicians, athletes, you know, pop
stars and stuff like that.
Yeah. I'd love to get all of those
people to talk about personal finance
cuz I feel like, you know, with
musicians, Adam22 has such a good uh
pulse on that, to talk to them, but I
feel like there needs to be a financial
component to that. And uh I really think
we've got a great angle on that.
It's still taboo like in the mainstream
media to talk about people's income from
certain movies and stuff like that. Uh,
and people theorize, oh, X made 40
million off of this movie, but to
actually hear them talk about their
competition for certain things or sports
stars, kind of like the GQ, My First
Million.
Yeah.
But kind of to to, you know, I guess
open up the conversation in the
mainstream media setting.
Yeah. Like I feel like a lot of people
um behind the scenes are great investors
and really savvy with their money, but
you don't know them for that. Like Shaq
would be a great example of like a
really talented business person, but not
everyone knows him for that. They'll
know him for basketball. He's fantastic
at basketball, but I feel like
financially he's made way more money
from his investments and his businesses.
So, I feel like a lot of people could be
showcased in such a way where it's an
inspiration for people who, you know, no
matter what the background is, you could
make it in business.
And not only that, but they've got a lot
of experience with that. So,
those are things I'd love to showcase.
I love that. I believe it. So, I hope
that becomes the case so that one day I
can be like, "Hey, I was I was one of
the first whatundests.
What number 150? No.
Well, we've actually 30 120 within the
first
within the first thousand. I'll settle
for that.
Well, thanks for having me guys. Thanks
so much. Really appreciate it. Uh the
one thing you got to get a free stock
down below in the description.com
Eric from Tri Carrot. He gave us this
entire set. Like this is a lot of his
equipment. He runs try Cararat. We'll
link it down below. They give out those
metal credit cards. Really cool. If
you're a creator or influencer,
definitely check it out. Are you pulling
yours out?
Yeah. Yeah.
It's customized. Do you have the credit
card?
I do not.
Oh, you need one.
Use my referral link. Uh,
so Oh, you know,
give them a give them a little drop. Do
a little drop test.
Wow.
Oh, yeah.
Wow.
I mean, they they don't mess around over
here. Customize for every creator. They
give us like double cash versus like the
the reserve card.
Yeah.
Wow.
It's a whole different level.
So, I love it.
So, if you're a creator, influencer,
check them out with the link down below
in the description. Thank you guys so
much. Till next time. Till next time.
Cool.
I really like that.