MrBeast: 'I Obsess Every Second of Every Day Until I Have a Mental Breakdown' - With Hasan Minhaj

The way I like to work is like, I like to go basically wake up, obsess over something, go to bed, wake up, obsess, go to bed, like every second of the day until I just have a mental breakdown. I burn out and then I like take a day off or maybe a day and a half off and I like to go right back to it. So I don't like work certain days. I just go as hard as I can, every ounce of my entire body until I just crash.

All right. In this episode, we are gonna talk about—

wait one second. Look, we gotta let the guy, MrBeast, actually do the intro.

Guys, in this, we're gonna teach you how to make a fucking million dollars. If you don't have a million dollars, we're gonna show you in this podcast. All right.

That was way better than us. Yeah, that's right. MrBeast, the biggest YouTuber in the world, joined us on My First Million and Hasan Minhaj, one of the biggest comedians in the world. We did a 4-person pod in person. This is kind of amazing.

Yeah. So look, check this out. I think Jon actually mentioned this on the podcast, but about 3, 4 weeks ago, he said he's gonna create this thing called Camp MFM. So basically he rented a house, a big old mansion in North Carolina, and he DM'd like 20 different people, a bunch of different founders and a bunch of interesting people. But then he also DM'd MrBeast and Hasan and he told them to come. I didn't actually think they were going to show up. And so we were just sitting here at night recording a podcast and they walked in and joined us and it was amazing.

Yeah, it was crazy seeing one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, one of the biggest comedians in the world. They kind of interviewed each other. And they talked about their creative process, what they're self-conscious of, what it's like to work for them, how much they put into each thing that they do. It was pretty nuts.

Yeah, it was.

I mean, it was amazing.

They made fun of me at first because I was nervous and I was. It was awesome.

Yeah, it was a big deal.

It was awesome. Um, so check it out.

I think you're going to dig it. Wait, hold on.

We rolling? We're rolling.

All right. We're live. We're doing it. If it's not recording, you're just not getting it.

Yeah. You're not getting it, dude.

You're not getting Jimmy.

All right.

We're live. Uh, Wait, what were you saying?

This is the most interesting crossover ever.

Yes.

Yeah.

Why are the 4 of us sitting here? I have no idea. Let's put him on the spot because he seems the most nervous.

Me?

No, he's like the body language doctor. He reads body language good, right? You know why I'm nervous?

It's because I'm wearing these shorts.

Yeah, bro, you're wearing the short shorts.

We also got a live audience here. Why? What is this? Yeah.

There's 30 men in this house.

Why? Why is there a sausage fest? Give us answers.

This is the power of Sean's ear.

So listen, here's the deal. So the story was, is that you wanted to do this. And it happened in 3 weeks.

Yeah, I just hit up a bunch of people. Actually, you know what? The way it really came together was I just tweeted it out because if you do that shit, like, you know, just it's like a luck magnet. Good things can happen. And 100-something people signed up for it. I was scrolling through the names and it's like, what's your Twitter handle? And one of them said MrBeast. And I was like, but, but I was like, it's a Google form. Anybody could write MrBeast. I was like, oh yeah, whatever, some jackass. Then he DMs me, he goes, this sounds fun. And we don't know each other.

I don't know him at all.

And he's like, I was like, oh shit, that was real. Oh shit, this is on. We're gonna do it now. And then I was like, uh, he's like, where are we doing it? And I was like, where does MrBeast live? North Carolina. I was like, yeah, we're thinking about doing it near Duke. He's like, okay, I'll come then. And then I got everybody else in after that.

You follow him on, on Twitter?

Well, uh, Ben from How to Take Over the World, like, retweeted him. And I was like, who's this guy? And I tapped and he just tweeted like 5 seconds ago, I'm hosting an NBA camp for like entrepreneurs. And I was like, oh, this looks cool. And then I just applied. That's how crazy life is. Yeah, that's just I don't know who this is, but I mean, basketball sounds fun.

And then he calls me last week. He's like, yo, I'm coming. But like, I don't know who you are. So like, what's your deal?

And here we are.

But you do that. You just walk around and call people.

Yeah. Well, I just like learning. I mean, that's how you just—

Did you hear how he got connected with Ben?

No.

All right. So Ben over here, he is our producer and he hosts this amazing podcast called How to Take Over the World. And I get— how did you find it?

Uh, bro, this is gonna get so many levels.

Someone put him on to it.

No one has any idea what we're even talking about. No, they do, because Cliff, who's sitting there, told me to listen to How to Take Over the World. So I listened to it, who retweeted his tweet about the camp, and here I am.

So you know what's funny about the story? He's like, yeah, this is dog shit content, because on YouTube you had to be on point, like in the first 10 seconds you needed to like grip people. He's like, this is their podcast.

I've already gone over 20 ways we could optimize this better in my head.

What are they?

All right, what would they be?

Let's go. 20 ways.

Well, that's what this podcast is, it's a brainstorm. We've already switched topics like 5 times.

And we didn't really hit them with like a hard one at the start. Like, what would've been better if it's like, I don't know, like we told some crazy story or something like to hook them or like, I don't know, or me for the ones who don't know. So then like, they're like, oh, now I know I should've listened.

Like, all right, host the podcast for a second.

So do our 10-second intro. Guys, in this, we're gonna teach you how to make a fucking million dollars. If you don't have a million dollars, we're gonna show you in this podcast. Like something like that. Now they're gonna listen.

All right, so here's what's interesting. We got me and Sam.

Mm-hmm.

We got Hasan Minhaj, who's a famous comedian, Netflix special.

We haven't announced it yet, but yeah, sure.

Breaking news! We got Jimmy, aka MrBeast. Craziest crossover.

Yeah, it's a wild crossover.

You guys just met tonight.

We met like an hour ago.

Yeah.

All right, give me first impressions. What do you think of MrBeast?

He's a cool guy. Yeah, he seemed really cool.

What did you think coming in?

I just knew he was a big like prank stunt. He's the voice of YouTube. He's the voice of a generation. Did he surprise you or he's—

how you thought he would be?

Yeah, I thought—

I feel like—

I feel like his—

you're gonna get your turn too.

I feel like his, like, curiosity, enthusiasm, all that stuff was really cool. Yeah, I listened to him on Rogan. He was really— he's really fascinating.

And what about you? What was your first impression?

Uh, I mean, kind of the same thing. Like, it was— I mean, you were just easy to talk to, which I think was very nice. Like, we were talking for like an hour.

Yo, Sean just turned this into Indian matchmaking so fast.

Hold hands.

Hold hands.

Just hold.

Look at that ring on his finger.

He's Take it.

Yeah, I'll take him, buddy.

Dude, you said—

so he said something really interesting to me earlier. We were just— you and I were shooting the shit.

Oh God, what'd I say?

And, uh, we're, uh, we were talking about, um, business. I, I think I— you said Elon Musk is like— you— I don't know if you said hero, but you're like, I think he's like the pinnacle of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship. Yeah, sure.

Do your employees?

We went to his office today, or we went to his studio and he's like, took us on tour.

Cool. This is where we blow shit up.

This guy's—

John blew me off, by the way.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You were supposed to— Canada flight delays blew him off.

Yeah, yeah.

Kidding, kidding. But we walk through. He's like, all right, yeah, this is this boardroom. This is my office. And so we go in and it's basically like, imagine like kind of like a gaming chair, computer, that's standard. Next to it, guess like 2 other objects in the room. Just take any guess.

That he had?

Yeah.

A Nalgene water bottle and just like a mattress on the floor.

A bench press directly next to the desk. And then the walls were just like a Steve Jobs quote, an Elon quote, a Steve Jobs quote. There's like a timeline, like at this age Steve Jobs was here, at this age. Oh shit, you're motivated by that shit.

Stay ahead of it. Also, some of those Elon quotes aren't even real. I love to just put fake Elon quotes. So if people read it to see if they're like, oh, that's inspiring or just completely made up.

Well, they're not that insightful. One was just the one right in front of your desk goes, work super hard.

Elon Musk.

That's one of the real ones. But I have my assistant like trying to find the dumbest things Elon's ever publicly said. So I can put mixed with all the real quotes just to see if people believe them or not.

Were you good at school?

No, horrible. Really? God awful.

Wow.

Okay. Yeah. That was like, I mean, I would act like I was studying, but you know, I was filming videos. I actually, my entire high school career, never brought my book bag home or anything. I would just like throw it under like the bleachers and then in the morning I'd just grab it.

Your first video is what, you were like 12, right?

Yeah.

Oh, actually I started making when I was 11. Yeah. Wow. Holy shit. Yeah. And it's crazy cuz I see 11-year-olds now and they're like this tall and squeakers and I'm like, How was I making videos? This kid looks—

Is your first video still live?

Uh, no, because I got embarrassed because people would play it in class. So I deleted my channel and then I made a new one when I was 13. So a little—

But the 13-year-old videos are still live?

Yeah, 13 or so.

Wow. He has one that's dope that's like a message to myself in 5 years.

Uh-huh.

Colin is shocked.

Wow. And you're like a little kid in it.

Yeah.

And so wow. In like 3 more years, Hi Me in 10 Years goes up and I'm like, I don't remember what's in it. It, I'm just like, I hope by now you should be outta college. Yeah, you're definitely outta college. I think that's how I started it. And you should be doing YouTube full-time. Like, there's just no world you're not after 10 years. Like, you're probably making a little bit of money. I just hope you are. Like, I hope you didn't—

and how much were you at the time?

Uh, like, I was at 8K subs, like, making $10 a month. And so my prediction in 10 years was like, I hope you're doing this as a job. And so when that goes up, I think that's gonna be crazy.

And when we were talking today, you, like, you talk with a lot of certainty about, like, where you're going, what you're doing. There's, like, very, like, If everybody's got this knob that's like doubt, your knob's set to zero on doubt. That's my— that's my— I don't know, is that accurate?

Um, back then, like, how much do you think you believed when you when you recorded that video that that was actually going to happen?

Oh, no. I mean, those were just different times. I was in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, North Carolina. So it's like everyone, you know, constantly wanted to remind me, you're not going to be a YouTuber. Grow up. Be realistic.

I think it's amazing that you never left North Carolina, though.

Yeah, you're still in bumfuck North Carolina.

What are you talking about? Yeah. I'm trying to make it not bumfuck anymore, but it's a work in progress.

Do you still rep it really hard?

I mean, I just, I got a lot, I mean, some of these people over here work there. I just got a lot of people and it's too much to move.

What was, what was your metric instead of subscribers and like views? When you were younger? Because with, with, with business, it's like revenue or employees. You guys are both business, but you're also like a more creative thing. So what was yours?

Yeah, when I was coming up, it was probably, can you do a set on late night? Can you do like a Conan set? Yeah. Could you, could you be on— I'll be a, I'll be a cast member of SNL. Like those were the metrics, kind of those like legacy media comedy institutions. I'll be in a movie. I want to be in a sitcom. I want to be in a TV show.

And what did it feel like when you started actually like, you know, The Daily Show and then selling out.

Yeah, that felt like a real, like, kind of checkmark. Like, wow, you've turned the corner.

Didn't you tell me that, like, right before that happened, you were living in a basement?

I was living in an attic, bro. Yeah, yeah. Attics are actually above sea level, but basements are below sometimes, you know? So yeah, I was living like a kind of in a not a great situation though.

How—

I'm amazed at your confidence, bro. The level of, the level of confidence, like the In the video, there's just a sheer amount of confidence you have because I still think maybe a downside of comedy is you have to have like a very high level of— well, comedians are using self-deprecation and self-awareness to be like, you know what I mean?

Well, you told me something because I was like trying to be funny, right? You send me these like iMessage things that are like just gold. You just send me these voice notes and one of the things you had said—

he was trying to write— he was like trying to do kind of like a comedy monologue.

Yeah, YouTube video, it's up there, 17,000 views, no big deal. Yeah. Um, so Wow. But you gave me a little hit.

You go, enough ego on this, man.

Bro, you started at 8K, I'm at 17K. I'm at least going to be—

okay.

But he says something, you go, comedy is low, low status game. You start low status. You told me— is that a trade secret or can you—

So, so like, what's an example?

You get on stage, you being like, I, I got 17,000 views in front of a guy who gets like 50 million views. And right, but that was unexpected. But we're gonna empathize more with you than we are with MrBeast in that scenario because you're like, oh man, you know, and if you're, if you're like funny about it and to be confident about, um, that, well, if you kind of own it, people are like, oh, like I even just now we did like an awkward icebreakers of the group.

Yeah. And I was thinking about this because, you know, my prompt was say your name and say one thing nobody in the room knows about you. Yeah. Which was basically like You can't be like, I'm MrBeast, I make a bunch of YouTube videos. You know, it's like you can't use your claim to fame. You got to use something else, right? And everybody was saying something interesting. And then I think Sully was the first one who was just like, I played one game of Little League baseball in my life because I shit my pants and they wouldn't let me come back.

Really great.

Yeah.

And that's low status, by the way. 100,000 people are going to listen to that one. But he did a low status one where everybody else was saying a fun fact, like a cool fact about them. He went low and somebody else was like, You know, I remarried my ex-wife, which makes me either the biggest idiot in the world or I guess the biggest idiot in the world. I still remember those, right?

He's like, hey group, share something no one on the planet knows. No one. And then 5 minutes later, all right, podcast, here's what they said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, shitting your pants at Little League.

Pretty low status.

Yeah, pretty low status. And then, yeah, being like, all right, I doubled back and married my ex-wife again. Like, yeah, yeah.

No one knows this.

Jimmy, we're Were you confident as a, as a kid in the career? Yeah.

Just as a kid.

Uh, no, I had fucking god awful acne when I was younger. I still have a ton of acne scars.

So what are you, what are you not confident about? So you're confident in your work and your ability to hit certain goals, whether revenue target. Yeah.

Actually, it leads me into, honestly, I'm still trying to get confident speaking in front of large groups of people, which made me wanna ask you a question. Cause we were talking about standup.

Yeah.

How, um, so let's say if I dedicated my life to trying to be a standup comic, how long do you think it would take for me to get good at it? I mean, what's the typical curve?

Everybody says it takes you 10 years to get good, but I just think it all depends on, um, like your natural capacity and inclination for it. Like, there's some people I've seen when they're open micers, they're amazing, you know? They just have great stage presence, they have great stories, they're, they're amazing on stage. So there's people like that, comics that I met where I'm like, the first time I saw them, they were amazing. Um, Jerrod Carmichael was like that. He was incredible. He was just incredible. He was so comfortable. We would do open mics and he would just Everybody was doing— was turning left and he was just turning right. Like, just his, his vulnerability, his stage presence. People would do their set, he would do things where like it'd be like a Conan showcase and everyone would do their polished material. Like, hey, what's up, I'm Hasan, and you know, dating's hard. He would just get up and he would just off the dome, like, kind of do a brand new set that night. And you could tell, you could tell, you're like, oh, this is kind of crazy.

So how long do you think it would take him to get good?

I don't, I mean, it's, that's like the question you just asked is like, how long would it take me to be as good as Ariana Grande at singing? You're like, how would I even? They're like, it's not a, it's not a hack. Like, or if you asked, if you asked like a MMA fighter, like, how long would it take me to get as good as you? Like, it's a, oh, thank you. Um, it's a, see, that's a little, you put them in low status. You offered the two waters to me.

Now I feel weird.

Now I got to put them on the side. No, I got to put them on the side. No, dude, low status.

I spent my whole life trying to be high status.

No, no, you guys all got the water.

Now I'm part.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to, I have to, I have to give MrBeast his water.

You know what I mean? Jimmy, what are you, what are you like?

You legacy media hack. I just gotta, I gotta pour the water for him and the, yeah. Get the fuck outta here.

Is your company ran like a normal company at all? Or, uh, and what would your employees say about working with you?

Uh, I mean, Tweek, you wanna just come say it?

Damn.

I don't know.

Yeah, Tweek, you wanna come in? That's a Tweek question.

That's a Tweek question. I don't know. Yeah.

Have you had like, how did you learn how to run a company? Do you ever had, did you have to hire someone?

That's what's hard. Cause like, Yeah, sure. He wants to come on in. There's a couple questions. Yeah, you take over. So the question was like, what's it like working with him? Oh, it's great. I mean, it's always different. No, it really is. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. No, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing.

We know it's great.

You're fired. I'm already fired. I'm already fired.

But how's Tariq going to answer that?

But not— well, listen, he pays the bills.

Let me ask you a better question. Yes. So the better question is, what's the fucking employers— what's the like extreme, either extreme good part or extreme bad part about working with them? We know it's overall extreme.

Actually, I will say that right now. Yeah. So extreme good part is, is experiences. Like I've done experiences that I've never could have imagined in my entire life. Like the traveling, the doing the coolest stunts that we've ever done. The worst part is, I guess, not knowing like what's next in terms of routine. And he knows this best too. Like we all kind of go through it if you work at MrBeast. So, but that comes with it, you know what I mean? And that's something that you kind of have to accept. But yeah, I think that's my answer.

All right. Well, and the reason I was asking was because you—

Am I your favorite boss? Am I a great person? So far, 100%. Yeah.

Well, no, I was asking because my employees sometimes would complain that I'd be like too aggressive. Changing things too much, but you seem more aggressive than I am.

Yeah.

And for a certain type of person, they like that. But for you to achieve your goals, you're gonna have to have a lot of people and then every once in a while process and every once in a while infrastructure and every once in a while planning.

Are you a perfectionist?

Well, of course. Yeah. Um, I, you know, it just, I just like to make the greatest YouTube videos possible and that's, that's literally all I want. So yeah, I mean, if it's not the greatest video, I just won't upload it. And so after you scrap a few videos, we kind of, everyone, You know, just kind of starts to figure it out.

Does it scare you that you can't stop? Do you ever feel like, damn, I'm like, I'm, I'm just throwing all these coals on the, on the embers of the algorithm.

What time do you sleep?

Uh, right now, usually around 3:00 AM.

Wow.

And then, and then, and then you get up at like, whenever, whenever Rohan or one of them knock on my door. Tariq will wake you up and just like, well, yeah, people will roll me outta bed. They're like, you need to go watch this video so we can submit it. Or I need help with a thumbnail or you gotta go film. It's like, I don't know. I'm kind of— I— they tell me what to do. I don't dictate.

I'm just shocked at like the numbers. So like you're the, the— I don't— I'll let you reveal any numbers, but you've some big numbers for revenue for your other businesses.

Yeah.

And you have to have infrastructure for that. And so that's why I was wondering. I was like, because you are like this.

Oh, gotcha. Yeah.

So on the stereotype, you're like this crazy creative person who's disorganized and that's perfect.

Yeah.

But to sell that much of candy and or of burgers, like you got to be Yeah.

So how many people work at the studio?

Uh, in the studio, like 60, cuz we don't have enough space to fit everyone. So that's why we're trying to build more, but building things just take forever.

Do you— do people like working for you, you think? No, the reason I'm asking is like these like creative types, I'm like curious about like— because the goal is to make one of us like a big deal. Everyone is working for that. Whereas a lot of other companies it's like, no, there's like this—

it's not necessarily that either. There's also certain projects where I'd be like, I'd love to learn from you. So there's been shows and movies that I've done, like The Morning Show, like I've never done a sexy 1-hour drama. I want to learn from Reese Witherspoon. I want to learn from Jennifer Aniston. I want to learn from the show creators. Like, how do you do that? How do you shoot that?

What's that lens?

What are you doing? That is that a 50? Is that a 75? How do you do that? How did you do that tracking shot? Why did you do that tracking shot? Let me see the script. Let me see the future script. There's all these things where I'm like, I just want to absorb. I just want to see how you do the whole thing. You know what I mean? Like, and that's an additive, like, positive value for me because most people don't have that access to that.

You know, I mean, examples. Tariq gotta meet his idol today.

Oh man, bro. Tariq, Tariq, you gotta set the bar.

Yeah, we had told them that you were coming today to the thing and like the look of disappointment when they saw it was, I was the only brown guy there. They're like, that ain't Hustle. They're like, yo, Hustle's changed, bro.

Yeah, Hustle's changed, bro.

And I tried to be funny on top of it and they were like, what the fuck? The camera really does that, Ted Powell, bro. Yeah.

Oh, don't do that, bro.

Don't do that. Don't do that.

When we were at your office, so you have like a big Elon, Steve Jobs, Like you admire these guys. That's why you like the How to Take Over the World podcast. Cause you like learning from them. What's a story that you heard that you're like, that like stuck with you? Like you remembered, you referenced it, like kind of changed the way you were thinking.

Do you think your, your biggest strength is probably your curiosity? That you're, you're down to do anything and try to do it.

Would the MrBeast version of standup be like, I'm gonna do the longest set ever. I'm gonna do the longest comedy set ever. Would it have to be— would that be the MrBeast, like, twist on it?

I would have to find something different because obviously whatever's currently out there, because I have a bunch of people on my team who are stand-ups, like, it's been done a bunch of times. So we'd have to figure out something different, which I would love to one day just because it seems fun. Yeah, he talks to me about all the time. But in general, you got to always just be in taking inspiration from different places, whether it be different podcasts, books, or different knowledge. I have people that I pay that just teach me things. Just whatever, like things that— what's that thing I don't know?

What do you mean by that?

Like, they'll just find things that they don't think I'm aware of or show me cool things and be like, I don't think you know this is a thing. Here, read about it. And so that way I'm always like, what's an example?

And how many, how many of these people do you have?

This is awesome. Right now, just like 2 or 3.

Yeah, Jimmy, they call those people, those are teachers.

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, he's like, he's like, they'll sit me down for about an hour at a time. And what's, what's wild is they'll focus on a subject and it's like, what's going on right now?

You know, I never thought about that way.

Pay him a couple hundred grand.

I keep them around. That's why I keep them around. No, but it's like different topics.

So, gotcha, gotcha.

Like the last one was like about just like crazy online, like which, like the, these like little things where they'll upload a file to Reddit and then like inside it's an encrypted code, takes you to a website, which takes you to a book and like these little like balls you can trace puzzles and like seeing if that inspired me. I don't know. It's just random things like that.

I'm sorry, I'm blocking my friend.

In point, I'm trying to always expand my, knowledge well in my head with new things I can draw inspiration from.

I was giving him props earlier where I said so much of people who kind of rev the algorithm are usually being divisive. They're saying something that's going to make you mad, right? Like I have a joke where I make fun of MDs and DOs and DOs get really mad. And, you know, it's like that's like a niche physician's joke, but people get upset. But what I was saying was so cool about what you do is I think really what you've tapped into is joy and spectacle and wonder. Which is, which is like a counter to that. And it's very rare to see that really take off on the internet. So what made you feel like I'm going to do that versus do videos that, that might, that might agitate people per se?

Yeah. Well, I do think in general it is a little bit easier just to piss people off and get attention.

For sure.

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HubSpot. Grow better. What creators do you guys look up to?

Oh, I'm curious to see what you say.

What creators do I look up to?

YouTubers, podcasters, comedians.

Podcasters.

I was going to say creators. Yeah. It could be anybody. Anybody. I think one of the first people that really inspired me, I think, was probably Steven Spielberg.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, he's one of the greatest storytellers ever. What was the first movie that you saw where you're like, oh my God, I was blown away? For me, it was Jurassic Park.

Um, as a kid, I, I only watched YouTube growing up.

I've seen—

that's it. Yeah. I get made fun of all the time.

What was the last movie that you watched?

Uh, well, I watched the Spider-Man 3 one because— but I never saw the earlier ones. Really?

Yeah. Like you have no time for movies?

No, it's not that time. I just, I don't know. I, I need to, like, I need to go back and watch Star Wars and Harry Potter and all that stuff to get brought up on culture. But I was just like, uh, you didn't—

and so you didn't see Squid Game? You just did the Squid Game remake?

Squid Game, I watched it.

Yeah.

Before we did it. Like, I wouldn't count that as a movie. Like, I watched a ton of anime, but yeah, movies. And weirdly enough, like, growing up, I didn't listen to music or watch movies, so I was like so out of culture.

Wow.

There's just part of why I was an introvert.

There's this Conor McGregor quote where they're like, you know, he was on BBC or something. It's like, oh, it's a bigger appearance, not just niche UFC thing.

Yeah.

They're like, what do you think about this team or this game? He's like, he's like, you know, the, uh, yeah, that one you said, they're great.

It was like Arsenal or something.

He's like Arsenal. And they're like, you don't know anything about Arsenal, right? He's like, He's like, I don't watch the news. He's like, I don't watch, I don't follow the news. I don't watch sports. I don't do anything. He goes, I have lost my mind to the game. He goes, I am obsessed with my game. I have lost my mind to it. I don't have time for anything else. I don't want to know about anything else. I only want to know about this game. When we were hanging out, I feel like you had that vibe where you were like, uh, you said a couple of things. You were like, I decided I was going to be a YouTuber and I was going to make great videos. And it didn't matter if I died the most famous YouTuber of all time or 90 years old with 1,000 subscribers, I was going to make great YouTube videos. Like that's, that's what I decided I was going to do, and that's all I do. I wake up and I do that thing.

What was that first YouTube video that you saw that like kind of filled you with that wonder where you're like, wow?

They make more than my mom.

Yeah, it was right there when I was like, okay, I'm doing this. Like, I just don't care. I'm being a YouTuber or I'm gonna fucking die trying. I just don't care. And that, like, the second I saw that was actually possible, that's when I was like, that's it. And it's funny also talking about like obsession and stuff like this, cuz it's funny how it changes, right? When you're like, and maybe it's different now cuz social media is a little bit cooler, but when I was younger, like, no one wanted to be a YouTuber. Like, most people when I was 13, 14 didn't even have phones yet. Like, it was kind of like a little bit of an older thing. And maybe it's just cuz where I grew up, but it's funny cuz back then people are like, get a life, stop being a fucking nerd. Like, you're too obsessive, you weirdo. And then now it's like, oh bro, he was so obsessive.

He's—

it's so great. Like, right.

It's seen as a positive quality.

And it's so funny, like, looking back on our life, going from a fucking loser nerd who's too obsessive and won't go anywhere to like, damn, that's really inspiring. And it's like, damn, that was very hurtful back then, but I'm glad it's inspiring now. And so it's funny to see how it changes. But I like to bring that up because if there are younger people or parents who have kids who are obsessive like this, that's typically what happens. Like younger kids don't understand that and it's different. And so you don't watch the newest South Park or the newest movie or whatever. So you don't talk about the same thing. So then people are just like, oh, well, you know, fucking sucks. You know what I mean?

How would you, how would you deal with that? Cause you have kids. I have kids. If they go, I want to be a Twitch streamer. I want to be a video gamer. You're like, let's go.

What was your major in college? Biology.

The ultimate hedge.

That was different. I just didn't know.

I know.

I didn't know what I wanted.

Well, what I think is actually— you could be doing the like YouTube, TikTok. Sure. I feel like you can look at his videos and be like, all right, I get it. I get why people like this. I get why this pops. Probably pretty tempting to be like Could I go get 50 million views? 100 million views? That seems nice.

No, to do what he's done, what he's done. I'm not going to say I'm not allowed to say it. You said you, you spend X number of dollars every video.

Oh yeah. I'll let you start it off.

I mean, that's what he does now.

But go look at his archive, right? It's like he took a plastic knife and tried to cut a plastic table and it took him 48 hours to do that. That's a, that's a $1.50 video, right? That's not a $1.5 million.

That's $1.5 million. Zero to—

it's a different thing. It's a different thing. So that's like a different type of skill set and muscle. So the types of videos he's producing, stand-up is different. If a musician was here, if a DJ was here, it's not all the same just because it's on YouTube. So yeah, we all do different types of media. This is a different type of media.

Are you tempted to like, you know, dabble?

Yeah, we talked about this, right?

I mean, I— the only— the, the thing that I, uh, would be, um, I would be reticent of is what if I have, I have to put this thing out and I don't believe in it, or I'm just doing it just to do it. That's the, that would be the problem. But I have to put up a new video every Tuesday.

That's the— just delete the video.

What do you do if you, if you—

What are you guys trying to figure out right now? Because I think if you watch a lot of interviews with people, it's like they— it's all buttoned up, it's all figured out, they're already successful, it's all working. And then the person who's watching these videos, typically somebody who doesn't have it all figured out, and they're just sort of like, ah, that's different. Like, that'd be nice to have it all figured out. But the reality is nobody's got it all figured out, right? Like, we were in your office, the whiteboard's full because you're thinking of new— yeah, like, where are we going? What's not figured out? We got to figure it out. So what's on both y'all's plate of like, what are you still trying to figure out in your game?

I'll let you take it first.

Yeah, Sean, what are you trying to figure out?

Yeah. What are you trying to figure out? Yeah.

Come on, Sean. I'm trying to figure out— I'll tell you, I'm trying to figure out if I want to go all in on content creating. Wow. Like I basically built businesses. I have the most fun doing this, but I don't know if I had the most fun just because it's a hobby and like, you know, I only get the good. I don't put all the work in.

If you love it, then go all in. I mean, it's not going to be less.

Do you love it?

I love doing it the way we're doing it now.

Yeah.

If I was like him, obsessed every hour of every day trying to be like, how are we going to grow this channel? I might not love it as much.

Did you like doing the Twitter thing?

For a period of time. It got old. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun to chase the number. Can we get to 100,000 in like a few months? Yeah, this is fun to chase a number, but that didn't—

Yeah, I got sick of it too.

That didn't last. So that gives me work. But that's the thing I'm trying to figure out. It's like, Should I go all in on content creating or should I stay with creating businesses? Which one is like, what, what do I want to be when I grow up? That's the question.

I'm asking myself that exact same question too. Because sometimes like when you're, when you're create business first and then go to content, I'm like, oh man, am I just going to talk about doing it all the time or am I just going to fucking do it?

Yeah.

So I, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah. I feel exactly the same way. What about you?

Uh, right, right now. I'm trying to stay loose for this game tomorrow.

That's what I'm trying to do.

I'm not trying to get tight, man. I'm 36, bro, pushing 37. Like, he's a young boy. Like, he might run us off the court. Yeah, yeah.

He was like, what's that word tonight? Yeah.

And I was like, yo, I'm like, dude, my L4 is hurting. Like, my hamstrings are kind of tight from this flight.

We got to his studio and he was like, he's got a hoop there. Yeah. He's like, oh, we got, we got 6. Let's play a game. He's wearing his like Yeezy slides, I was like, bro, I need 15 minutes of stretching. And then like, you know, I need like proper medical attention. If we're going to try to do something here.

Do you guys want to go ball?

If there was an indoor court, we would do it. Yeah. I play, I play 21 with Jimmy right now.

Yeah.

Okay.

That'd be a fun, that would be, that would be a fun video. That would be a fun video.

You want to make it happen? Yeah, let's do it. You can find a court somewhere around here.

We'll play 21.

Amazing.

We'll play 21 or horse.

Yeah.

We'll wrap up with this, with your, with your answer. Okay. Oh, what was the question?

What's not figured out? What are you trying to figure out in— in—

Oh, everything. So I'm just gonna say a funny joke to change the topic. All right, for sure. Basketball. How to not strain my legs tomorrow.

There you go.

There we go.