Speaker 1: Welcome to Behind the Influence, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and TDC Media two twelve, thirteen fourteen. YouTube was
Speaker 1: just an individual in front of a camera editing his
Speaker 1: or her own videos and creating their own thumbnails. That
Speaker 1: is not YouTube. You have to love it first of all.
Speaker 1: If you're just making content to make money, you will
Speaker 1: fail so quickly. YouTubers don't think about it like that,
Speaker 1: but they should be, because the goal is to have
Speaker 1: active subscribers. When you post a video, all of them
Speaker 1: click on your video, and that's when I knew, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is something that's going to be massive. Well, today
Speaker 1: is a very important day. We have the godfather of
Speaker 1: basically do you like that? You're already laughing because the
Speaker 1: interviews is going to go great already. You're basically the
Speaker 1: godfather of the biggest names in digital right now read
Speaker 1: Duke Shure And I did not correct your last name.
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of people struggle with that
Speaker 1: outside in North Dakota. But that was good. But did
Speaker 1: I say it with a North Dakota Yeah, you said
Speaker 1: it very very German. Oh I did? You were on point.
Speaker 1: It's very good. Okay, great, Well, you know what out
Speaker 1: of ten already. We're really excited to have you here. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you represent the pitome of what we cover on this show,
Speaker 1: people of influence, and you are a person of influence
Speaker 1: because you are behind these people. Like we have an
Speaker 1: amazing team. I got into this industry four and a
Speaker 1: half five years ago by myself out of my bedroom,
Speaker 1: and to see what Night Media has blossomed into today
Speaker 1: has been incredible. I think we're just to throw out
Speaker 1: some numbers. Were over a billion views a month through
Speaker 1: ten clients or across ten clients, and I believe we're
Speaker 1: at about that eighty eight million subscriber range, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty impressive when you consider it's only ten individuals. Night
Speaker 1: Media's philosophy just to get into this a little bit,
Speaker 1: so we usually only work with family friendly creators, so
Speaker 1: we don't work with a ton of people that actually
Speaker 1: we don't have any creators that really swear on their
Speaker 1: channels and something that we're we're not necessarily against, we
Speaker 1: just don't like to promote it to children. And the
Speaker 1: second ones, we only work with with creators that want
Speaker 1: to be entrepreneurs and business people. And you know, we
Speaker 1: found ten that you know, want to dig into this
Speaker 1: industry and want to keep YouTube at its core and
Speaker 1: want to do so much more, and that's why we
Speaker 1: stayed small. So you have ten of the most subscribed
Speaker 1: to followed YouTube personalities in a time where YouTube is
Speaker 1: it's hard to navigate. Right. People die on YouTube, but
Speaker 1: I don't mean actually die, but their content dies on
Speaker 1: YouTube because they're not switching it up enough or whatever.
Speaker 1: The reason is. Is it that you've found people who
Speaker 1: have staying power or is it that you have come
Speaker 1: up with a strategy for that staying power? Man, I
Speaker 1: don't know how much I want to stay here, and
Speaker 1: I think most of it is just lack of understanding
Speaker 1: of how YouTube actually works. Most of our guys focus
Speaker 1: on a few things. And yes they switched their content up.
Speaker 1: Yes they don't do the same video ten times in
Speaker 1: a row like some creators make that mistake. But you know,
Speaker 1: we really understand that a good video starts with a
Speaker 1: good title and thumbnail, and then once you get people
Speaker 1: to click on that video, it's all about getting them
Speaker 1: to stay and watch that video. So it's really just
Speaker 1: a combination of high click through rate which is CTR,
Speaker 1: and high a reg uderation. So that's the two things
Speaker 1: that we really focus on and as a creator. When
Speaker 1: those two dip, that's when it's time to either switch
Speaker 1: it up or say, Okay, my fans aren't clicking on
Speaker 1: this video. Why are they not clicking on this video?
Speaker 1: Or why are they not staying and watching this video?
Speaker 1: For the duration we're going to get into a little
Speaker 1: bit of your back story before we give away all
Speaker 1: the secrets. But there was a time when all of
Speaker 1: this clicked for you, And there had to have been
Speaker 1: moments in the journey where you figured out the secret
Speaker 1: sauce and and to even figure out to work with influencers.
Speaker 1: Would you remember a time in your career that this
Speaker 1: all kind of came to fruition for you. There there's
Speaker 1: a few. I honestly don't even think we're a first
Speaker 1: space yet, Like we have so much more to accomplish
Speaker 1: as a company. And yes, we work with some of
Speaker 1: the most influential people on the Internet, but there's a
Speaker 1: lot that we have to accomplish with those individuals, and
Speaker 1: we really dig into their businesses. But when I was
Speaker 1: I was an NFL sports agent before I got into
Speaker 1: this industry and I met Dude perfect. So this was
Speaker 1: two thousand fifty Dude Perfect was still small, not the
Speaker 1: Dude Perfect we know today. They're like two million subscribers.
Speaker 1: And I met them, and at the time, we were
Speaker 1: working with large NFL clients. We had Odell Beckham Jr.
Speaker 1: And Richard Sherman and Marcus Allen and Barry Sanders and
Speaker 1: so like we were at the top of this NFL
Speaker 1: chain and it was a lot of fun. But when
Speaker 1: I met Dude Perfect, advertising agencies and brands were asking
Speaker 1: me questions that they weren't necessarily interested about Odell and Richard.
Speaker 1: They were going, tell us more about Dude Perfect, or
Speaker 1: those trick shot guys are really interesting. Why don't you
Speaker 1: come to the office and tell us more? And that
Speaker 1: was kind of like my first AHA moment was Okay,
Speaker 1: people are actually looking at this to be a viable
Speaker 1: marketing you know medium. I left three months later. People
Speaker 1: still thought I was crazy at that time, like nobody's
Speaker 1: gonna buy a Dude Perfect video, Like people aren't going
Speaker 1: to spend money on YouTube. But eventually, after pitching it
Speaker 1: for six to eight months, people started to spend money.
Speaker 1: And that first one was Callaway Golf. Kellowe Golf came
Speaker 1: in in a very conservative golf industry that's predominantly marketed
Speaker 1: towards older individuals. Came in and bought a You Perfect video,
Speaker 1: and this was the first thing I had done with
Speaker 1: Dude Perfect. And then they came back for a second video,
Speaker 1: and that's when I knew, Okay, this is something that's
Speaker 1: going to be massive. And so you leave the sports
Speaker 1: world behind, yeah, I did. I packed up my car.
Speaker 1: I worked so hard to get into the sports industry.
Speaker 1: To everyone's hard. That's a hard career to kind of
Speaker 1: break into. It's almost impossible to break into because there's
Speaker 1: not that many sports agents. It's very difficult. It's easy
Speaker 1: to get a certificate to be a sports agent. It's
Speaker 1: very difficult to represent a guy that actually makes an
Speaker 1: NFL roster. And so I saw the movie Jerry McGuire,
Speaker 1: just like everyone else did when they were younger, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was a sexy industry. I lived in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, and I used to travel back and forth
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas to l A and literally just sit
Speaker 1: in lobbies like c A and Athletes first, and like
Speaker 1: all these different lobbies. I was just sitting wait for
Speaker 1: agents to come out, and then I would hand them
Speaker 1: my resume and I'd be like, just give me an opportunity,
Speaker 1: like I promised, like it's going to be worth It
Speaker 1: is very every everyone everyone passed. I got some emails
Speaker 1: back and they're like, you know, thanks for sitting in,
Speaker 1: but you know, sorry, we just aren't hiring. Or it
Speaker 1: was like ce A just kicked me out of the
Speaker 1: lobby and yeah, it's just never happened. And then eventually
Speaker 1: I met someone in Las Vegas who was running a
Speaker 1: sports management firm and he offered me an internship and
Speaker 1: I just took it. Isn't that how all great stories started.
Speaker 1: It's like they said no a thousand times and then
Speaker 1: finally and then you were representing some known names, which
Speaker 1: to leave that after all that tenacity and you know,
Speaker 1: sitting in lobbies and getting kicked out of them for
Speaker 1: you to then jump ship into this unknown world. Obviously
Speaker 1: you saw a case study of somebody wanting to buy something,
Speaker 1: so you knew it was viable and you knew there
Speaker 1: was something there, but did you know how big this
Speaker 1: world could be? No idea, no idea. Okay, at the time,
Speaker 1: my parents thought it was crazy. So I I packed
Speaker 1: up my cars like mom, Dad, like I'm driving to
Speaker 1: Dallas where Dude Perfect is base. I'm leaving for Smartin Management,
Speaker 1: which was the sports station. Se like, wait, what, I thought,
Speaker 1: You've worked a year and a half to get this job.
Speaker 1: You've done it for nine months, and now you're gonna leave.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I think I can do this,
Speaker 1: and like, well, you know, we trust you and good
Speaker 1: luck and you know they supported me, which you know,
Speaker 1: it was number one and then number two. It was
Speaker 1: then figuring out who were the next big channels that
Speaker 1: are going to pop up on YouTube And luckily then
Speaker 1: met typical gamer who was live streaming Grand Theft Auto
Speaker 1: and saw him pulling five thousand viewers to eight thousand
Speaker 1: viewers to twelve thousand viewers, and you just continue to
Speaker 1: grow and that's when YouTube gaming became a thing. So
Speaker 1: then was your full time focus just kind of scouting
Speaker 1: this this next crop of influencers and mega digital personalities.
Speaker 1: And how did that day look for you? Were you
Speaker 1: just sitting there on YouTube all day? Not really. I
Speaker 1: was sending a lot of cold emails at that time
Speaker 1: because I was working pretty closely with Dude Perfect and
Speaker 1: I was trying to bring in business for them. Wasn't
Speaker 1: really interested in signing a ton of people. I always
Speaker 1: understood that talent management wasn't scalable. It wasn't a scalable
Speaker 1: business model. For me, it was I just to work
Speaker 1: with individuals that I enjoyed working with, and then I
Speaker 1: wanted to become business partners with them and do something
Speaker 1: much bigger than just create YouTube videos. And for me,
Speaker 1: that was always, you know, where I wanted to take this.
Speaker 1: But at the time, there were so many different people
Speaker 1: popping up on YouTube it was hard to keep up
Speaker 1: like it is today, It's like there's so many channels
Speaker 1: with a million subscribers, how do you figure out which
Speaker 1: one to work with? So I was just getting to
Speaker 1: know people, sending a lot of cold emails, talking with
Speaker 1: advertising agencies, and really just building my rolodex. So at
Speaker 1: that point, what was the game plan for you? Did
Speaker 1: you think you're gonna start an agency? Is was night media?
Speaker 1: Even in the no, it wasn't even really a thing yet.
Speaker 1: I just was enjoying what I was doing and I
Speaker 1: was going to eventually figure out how to make it
Speaker 1: a business. But at the time I wasn't even thinking that.
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, Man, I'm not making any money.
Speaker 1: How do I Convince CALLOWE Golf and BMW to spend
Speaker 1: money on Dude Perfect so I can actually bring in
Speaker 1: some income. That's really all I was concerned about at
Speaker 1: the time, and then it eventually to now what night
Speaker 1: media has become is pretty crazy. I never imagined. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so a lot of things happened between that first deal
Speaker 1: and today. Um, today, you represent ten huge personalities. We
Speaker 1: were going over your your top five and that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're your favorite gonna get me in trouble not.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say top five because they're all incredible, but
Speaker 1: you've got Preston Mr b Sunday unspeakable. You can look
Speaker 1: at it in a few ways, views per month, or
Speaker 1: subscribers or social reach. I guess we're looking at facts.
Speaker 1: We're not asking the godfather to pick the favorite child
Speaker 1: that I love them all today. Yeah, of course you do.
Speaker 1: And they're all really talented. So you get this roster?
Speaker 1: How does how does this happen? So? Okay? So I
Speaker 1: was working with Due Perfect, then I met typical gamer
Speaker 1: Twitch and we talked about you had someone on from
Speaker 1: Twitch Earlier. Twitch was obviously taking off an Amazon had
Speaker 1: just acquired. It was called Justin TV. YouTube gaming then starts,
Speaker 1: and I was starting to work with some of those
Speaker 1: live streamers that were popping up on YouTube that were
Speaker 1: just live streaming on the platform. And that's really how
Speaker 1: it started. And then two thousand seventeen. But February two seventeen,
Speaker 1: I met an individual named Preston had a Minecraft channel
Speaker 1: called rest in Plays about three and a half million subscribers.
Speaker 1: We were in the same city. I was living in Dallas.
Speaker 1: I had no idea he was in Dallas, and a
Speaker 1: friend of mine who was also a YouTuber, Nico Vald,
Speaker 1: introduced us through Twitter d MS. I do most of
Speaker 1: my business weirdly enough, through Twitter d MS. I've never
Speaker 1: recruited anyone, No, they slide into mine. I've never like
Speaker 1: recruited a person to sign them. It's usually them coming
Speaker 1: to me and asking questions. Is how it usually starts. Hey,
Speaker 1: I saw you work with so and so, like, can
Speaker 1: you tell me a little more? And that's how it works.
Speaker 1: With Preston, he introduced us. We went out to coffee,
Speaker 1: sat there for about four hours and just kind of
Speaker 1: talked about family and faith and business and you know,
Speaker 1: just had a good time. And eventually, about thirty days later,
Speaker 1: him and I started working together and that's when night
Speaker 1: Media took off. Okay, so would you say he was
Speaker 1: the reason night Media came into fruition. I would say
Speaker 1: he's the reason Night Media started to really scale, like
Speaker 1: our business offering and what we were offering creators and
Speaker 1: how we were working with them, because before that, I
Speaker 1: was working with a few guys who we worked with
Speaker 1: today and it was just kind of like brand flow,
Speaker 1: which is great, but Preston really opened my eyes to
Speaker 1: this can be so much more. You know, the guy
Speaker 1: has seven businesses right now because I think twenty seven employees,
Speaker 1: which is crazy, but a lot and a lot of
Speaker 1: our clients now as you look at them, they all
Speaker 1: have twenty plus employees. It's just kind of how we
Speaker 1: help them build that internal business to support. And then
Speaker 1: Preston and I just started doing business together and that's
Speaker 1: when I was like, Okay, I need to hire some
Speaker 1: people because this is getting out of control. And then
Speaker 1: Preston introduced me to Unspeakable Gaming, who lives in Houston,
Speaker 1: and then we ended up signing Unspeakable and then it
Speaker 1: just started. The domino started the fall. People who are
Speaker 1: having two to three million subscribers, that's that's a decent
Speaker 1: baseline to start with, but then you did something incredible
Speaker 1: and made them go from three million subscribers to ten
Speaker 1: x or you know whatever it is. It's every single
Speaker 1: person started pretty decently, and I think I would put
Speaker 1: them in the top of YouTube top creators. What did
Speaker 1: you do? What was your secret sauce and what was
Speaker 1: your offering to these people that helped them go from
Speaker 1: three million to say, twenty million subscribers. Well, it ultimately
Speaker 1: falls on them to produce good content. The one thing
Speaker 1: that that we really focus on that we understand is
Speaker 1: it's a business. And so most of these YouTube creators
Speaker 1: that you meet and this was, you know, two thousand, ten, twelve,
Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen, YouTube was just an individual in front of
Speaker 1: a camera editing his or her own videos and creating
Speaker 1: their own thumbnails. That is not YouTube. You have to
Speaker 1: have a creative director, a post production manager, head editor,
Speaker 1: like do you need to have specific people on your
Speaker 1: team to help where you can kind of take a
Speaker 1: step back as a creator and just focus on, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's today's video, Okay, what's tomorrow's video? And that creative
Speaker 1: director really needs to help you flesh out like Okay,
Speaker 1: what do my fans want to watch? Right? So what
Speaker 1: we've really focused on is helping them build teams internally
Speaker 1: so they can just be talent, and that's what they
Speaker 1: should be. They shouldn't have to play fifteen different roles.
Speaker 1: And as we're looking to start other businesses or whether
Speaker 1: it's a concert whom are product or we're starting a
Speaker 1: mobile gaming company, they can't focus on that things. If
Speaker 1: they're editing their own videos and making their own thumbnails
Speaker 1: and coming up with all the creative it's just not feasible.
Speaker 1: And so for us, you know, most of our clients
Speaker 1: now have taken a step back, hired the specific individuals
Speaker 1: that they need on the team, and then they also
Speaker 1: understand the data behind why YouTube videos perform. Well, what
Speaker 1: what is the common thread between all of these talent
Speaker 1: all of this, you know, the digital personalities versus the
Speaker 1: other ones we're seeing on YouTube. So for us, like
Speaker 1: we focus on two things. This is what we're talking
Speaker 1: about a little earlier. The first pillars that they need
Speaker 1: to be family friendly. We only work with family friendly creators.
Speaker 1: It's it's a little differently if your audiences in their
Speaker 1: twenties and thirties and forties, but most of the audience
Speaker 1: that we have for creators is like six to twelve
Speaker 1: years old. Some of them sew a little older, like
Speaker 1: Mr Beast and many Latin Typal gamer. But for the
Speaker 1: most part, that's where we sit and so family friendlies
Speaker 1: one and that second one is we only work with
Speaker 1: creators that want to be more than just YouTubers. They
Speaker 1: want to have to be business people. They want to
Speaker 1: be entrepreneurs. They're really good at using YouTube is that
Speaker 1: core and then building businesses from that? If that makes sense?
Speaker 1: So those are like, as I look at all of
Speaker 1: our clients, are are ten clients. That's two things that
Speaker 1: they all have in common, is they really want to
Speaker 1: do more than just be a YouTube creator. How do
Speaker 1: you guide them? Obviously you said that you play manager
Speaker 1: agent all these different rules. How do you help customize
Speaker 1: and guide each person's trajectory or are you I'm assuming
Speaker 1: it's different for each person. Yeah, it's really up to them,
Speaker 1: and they set the cadence of what the next three
Speaker 1: to five years look like. We just help them get
Speaker 1: there right most and we have a lot of meetings
Speaker 1: with people that we don't end up signing because they
Speaker 1: really have no idea. They're making YouTube videos, they're doing
Speaker 1: fifty million views a month, and they're like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's great, and that's fine, it's just not for us, right,
Speaker 1: we want to build businesses with them. Sign an agent,
Speaker 1: persons with Endeavor. He has a publicist and all these
Speaker 1: other people, and we want to build an infrastructure. So
Speaker 1: if we want to do an animated series on our
Speaker 1: own present and Night Media can go do that. Or
Speaker 1: if we want to do this consumer package good Mr
Speaker 1: Beast and Night Media can go do that. And so
Speaker 1: that's why it's just it's so important to us, and
Speaker 1: some creators just aren't right. They just don't fit in
Speaker 1: our Night Media's you know, little closet of what we
Speaker 1: look for. I was gonna next ask you if if
Speaker 1: there was exclusivity with these people that you sign, but
Speaker 1: obviously Preston he was able to sign with an outside agency. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we don't act as the agent. We just act
Speaker 1: as the manager or business manager. We sometimes use agents
Speaker 1: depending on what we want to get done. If Preston,
Speaker 1: for instance, wanted to do more voiceover and so we
Speaker 1: signed with Endeavor to help him do a little bit
Speaker 1: more voice acting. But most all of the exclusivity really
Speaker 1: falls on night media. If they want an agent, will
Speaker 1: go help them interview agents. I think back in the
Speaker 1: day when we were talking about traditional talent, they said,
Speaker 1: you know, the important thing about a manager is helping
Speaker 1: you find a good agent. It's not really the case
Speaker 1: anymore because it's not a traditional world. Like these people
Speaker 1: can you know, Preston can do his own animated series
Speaker 1: and act in it and funding it and do it
Speaker 1: all by himself without an agent. We don't need a
Speaker 1: certified agent Hollywood, but for some circumstances we still do.
Speaker 1: Let's talk specifically a little bit about Mr Beast because
Speaker 1: he has done so much in the last year. He's
Speaker 1: grown and in his numbers are insane basically, and everybody's
Speaker 1: eyes seem to be on him this year. What what
Speaker 1: was the big change in ten for Mr Beat? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I made an article I think it was a video
Speaker 1: like mid two thousand eighteen, and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen, Year of the Pulse two thousand eighteen
Speaker 1: was Ninja two thousand nineteens like the Year of the Beast,
Speaker 1: and he might follow it up in twenty is like
Speaker 1: the Year of the Beast. Again, and I think that's
Speaker 1: going to happen just based on the projects that we
Speaker 1: have going on right now. Right I think I told
Speaker 1: you before we started the last twelve months, Jimmy's grown
Speaker 1: sixteen and a half million subscribers. I don't know if
Speaker 1: which may possibly be the fastest growth were unclear? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a personality channel. I'm not talking T series or
Speaker 1: like businesses or even like justin Bieber, like music channels.
Speaker 1: We we usually put it in like a style of
Speaker 1: just personality channels. I would say Ninja is the only
Speaker 1: other one, and I he had to have grown faster
Speaker 1: than Ninja. I'll ask, I'll ask YouTube who grew quicker?
Speaker 1: You know what, for the sake of the podcast? Guess
Speaker 1: who grew quicker? Jimmy? Yeah, sorry, Ninja, Sorry Tyler. What
Speaker 1: is it about Mr Beast? Why? What's what's the so what?
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of things. One is he's
Speaker 1: more focused on the algorithm more than any person I've
Speaker 1: ever met, Like he really pays attention to the data
Speaker 1: and why videos perform and why videos don't perform, and
Speaker 1: so a lot of his day, I mean, he'll think
Speaker 1: three four hours just on a thumbnail, like what is
Speaker 1: this thumbnail? How do I get this from a ten
Speaker 1: to click through rate? So that's most of his days
Speaker 1: is just creative. But all his videos are different. Like
Speaker 1: he and we really invented the trends in eighteen last
Speaker 1: to leave massive trend on YouTube still today, twenty four
Speaker 1: hour videos massive trend on YouTube that Jimmy really started
Speaker 1: in twenty s I'm not going to say I watched
Speaker 1: the whole thing. Didn't he say hundred thousand times? That
Speaker 1: was I think sixteen or seventeen, okay, but that was insane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's done a few of those. He did the miss
Speaker 1: put Pie one saying put pie thousand times. I think
Speaker 1: he watched It's every Day Bro for twenty four straight hours?
Speaker 1: And how is his mental state after that? He's fine?
Speaker 1: Is he? Okay? I don't think he'll ever do anything
Speaker 1: like that again. The twenty four hour videos, and they
Speaker 1: are a percent legit. It's not like they go spend
Speaker 1: six hours in a rainforce like the new video that
Speaker 1: came up there in the rainforest for twenty four hours
Speaker 1: or there, you know there. I shouldn't even say they're
Speaker 1: filming another twenty four hour video next week. That's insane,
Speaker 1: but they'll spend twenty four hours there. They're not making
Speaker 1: this up, so would you it's okay to say this
Speaker 1: is the main motivation behind Mr Beast's videos, What is
Speaker 1: going to get the most views? I think it's some
Speaker 1: of it in what we really understood. And this really
Speaker 1: started with the twitch donation videos, which was another trend.
Speaker 1: He started Twitch donation videos when we did the forty
Speaker 1: dollars to Ninja and we gave it. It was a
Speaker 1: charity stream for St. Jude, So it's basically a donation
Speaker 1: to to St. Jude's. I think it just sparked something
Speaker 1: within him is like, wait, I have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do a lot of social good with my platform, and
Speaker 1: so yes, we pull out of views, but we also
Speaker 1: we do a lot with charitable organizations. We're starting our
Speaker 1: own five oh one C three that's going to tackle
Speaker 1: homelessness in America. You know, we just announced yesterday that
Speaker 1: we're gonna plant twenty million trees by Earth Day. So
Speaker 1: his platform has really become something so much bigger than
Speaker 1: just pulling views. And I think that's why I like,
Speaker 1: not only was the Year of the Beast, like I guarantee,
Speaker 1: like the end of that year, he's gonna be sitting
Speaker 1: around that fifty million subscriber range. That's insane. That's absolutely
Speaker 1: do thirty by the end of the year. I'll say
Speaker 1: it's end of September, where almost twenty five December will
Speaker 1: probably a two to three million month. Do we know
Speaker 1: who has the most? I'm sure. I wonder how many
Speaker 1: of those are active. I have no idea. I'm just speculating.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's really so, it's it's now Beauty Pie,
Speaker 1: Mr Dude Perfect. I think we passed Mark Applier and
Speaker 1: Jack Septicai and Annas. I think it's just those three
Speaker 1: Mr be stood Perfect, Beauty Pie. That's awesome. So you're
Speaker 1: working in this space where you you know, they're not
Speaker 1: just working on YouTube, they also are building businesses that
Speaker 1: you've referenced many times. What are some of the businesses
Speaker 1: that you've found to be most lucrative and in line
Speaker 1: with what these creators are setting out to do. I
Speaker 1: think merchandise is the first one that always stands out,
Speaker 1: and people do like their own merch and now we're
Speaker 1: seeing creators actually create clothing companies like Teddy Fresh in
Speaker 1: H three H dre that are doing you know very
Speaker 1: well or loose change and face banks. We're going to
Speaker 1: see more of that, and obviously all our clients sell merchandise.
Speaker 1: I think we'll get a little bit more into specific
Speaker 1: clothing brands and apparel. The next one for us is
Speaker 1: going to be consumer package good, So we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into products, whether that's candy or other edible, you know, food,
Speaker 1: something along those lines. Will launch in the next like
Speaker 1: thirty to sixty days. I won't say what it's called.
Speaker 1: Presson and I launched a animated production company about sixty
Speaker 1: days ago, and so we're going to start creating our
Speaker 1: own intellectual property, our own animated series. Will probably do
Speaker 1: a few with Nickelodeon. I think we're at the finish
Speaker 1: line with a few of those right now. So sky's
Speaker 1: the limit. I think the hard part is staying narrow
Speaker 1: and actually executing on a certain thing, on certain things,
Speaker 1: because our guys and they now think like this, like
Speaker 1: I can accomplish anything with my platform. What do I
Speaker 1: want to build? So we we try and keep them
Speaker 1: pretty narrow with like, okay, let's pick two to three
Speaker 1: things this year and execute on those instead of fifteen
Speaker 1: and not getting anything done. In twelve months. And so
Speaker 1: for Preston, it was, you know, we want to do
Speaker 1: a certain consumer package ago that will launch and then
Speaker 1: really meat Ball, which is our kids production house, and
Speaker 1: so those are the two things that we wanted to
Speaker 1: execute on in ten as well as his elm He's
Speaker 1: he's with Elmer's Hot Pockets, Hot Wheels, Sonic and Disney
Speaker 1: right now, or his his corporate partners. How is your
Speaker 1: head staying? We just left Orlando. Actually we filmed a
Speaker 1: Star Wars commercial. I got roped into it somehow. So
Speaker 1: it was Preston, his wife bree our friend Keith, and myself.
Speaker 1: We're in the Star Wars commercial for Galaxy's Edge. So
Speaker 1: we just launched that on Saturday. I'm back here again
Speaker 1: on the first. We have a Hot Wheels thing going on,
Speaker 1: and then Breeze also filming a thing for another brand
Speaker 1: on the opposite side of town. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 1: There's so much going on, and how do you even
Speaker 1: keep your head straight? Because you have these ten It's
Speaker 1: not like, you know, most agencies have their one star.
Speaker 1: It feels like all ten of your clients are stars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they keep me busy. I have a great team. I
Speaker 1: travel a lot because I like to be with them
Speaker 1: when they travel or they're doing certain appearances. But I
Speaker 1: also have a really supportive team that also helps, and
Speaker 1: you know, fills in the gaps. How do you manage
Speaker 1: time and properly allocate enough time to each of these
Speaker 1: people because obviously, you know, with a music label, they
Speaker 1: might put all their eggs into Taylor Swift, but then
Speaker 1: there's the person that's really talented, but they're not going
Speaker 1: to put as much marketing money or whatever. How do
Speaker 1: you equally distribute your time to make sure that all
Speaker 1: of your clients feel like they're getting the attention the
Speaker 1: time that they need. It's so difficult. I've runned that prominent.
Speaker 1: It's the reason why we are not going to ever
Speaker 1: scale the talent management business because I only have so
Speaker 1: much time. Nick on my team, who represents and manages
Speaker 1: some of our clients, now, only has so much time.
Speaker 1: You know, we're hiring another talent manager who's probably going
Speaker 1: to sign one, maybe two individuals, will never get over
Speaker 1: fifteen to eighteen. It's just not our business. And so
Speaker 1: the way that I manage my time is just not
Speaker 1: signing everyone. If I wanted to, Night Media could probably
Speaker 1: have fifteen more clients hitting that like hundred million of
Speaker 1: mark But you know, we have ten whales right now
Speaker 1: and we're so focused on those ten that for us
Speaker 1: to just start signing people is just not our business.
Speaker 1: I like that. I feel like that's why everyone's doing
Speaker 1: so well. They get that specific attention and it's catered
Speaker 1: to them versus you just kind of dumping content out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's some management companies that represent thousands of people.
Speaker 1: I mean, at that point, you even know everyone's name,
Speaker 1: do you know who their parents are? Like you, I'm
Speaker 1: so close to the ten individuals that we work with.
Speaker 1: I was in Preston's wedding. I'll probably in you know,
Speaker 1: typicals wedding if him and Samara end up getting married
Speaker 1: in the next year. So it's like they're now like
Speaker 1: our best friends. And I think that's the one thing
Speaker 1: that sounds out about night Media, as we treat him
Speaker 1: like family, and it's hard to have family when there's
Speaker 1: a thousand individuals in your company or a thousand creators
Speaker 1: like you just there's no time for that. So you're
Speaker 1: pretty hands on when it comes to whether it's a
Speaker 1: brand deal or it's somebody wanting to brainstorm with you,
Speaker 1: Preston coming to you a year ago or whatever and saying,
Speaker 1: I want to do animation. How does a conversation like
Speaker 1: that happen? Is it? This is a passion of Preston's
Speaker 1: and he comes to you and he's like, how do
Speaker 1: we execute? And then you figure it out. It was
Speaker 1: actually something I pitched him on. So Preston, if you
Speaker 1: look at his channel, his Minecraft channel now it's it
Speaker 1: used to be Preston Plays. It's just changed the Preston now.
Speaker 1: So we just crossed ten million subscribers two months ago
Speaker 1: and he switched Minecraft onto a different channel now called
Speaker 1: Preston Place. He has two series that really stood out
Speaker 1: to me that were episodical. One was based on hide
Speaker 1: and Seek within Minecraft and he also tried it in
Speaker 1: Roadblocks and in Fortnite, and the other ones about finding
Speaker 1: secret items artifacts places, and they're the two most popular
Speaker 1: series on his channel really on YouTube to be quite honest,
Speaker 1: like they average four to eight million views of video.
Speaker 1: And so when we looked at it, people are coming
Speaker 1: to us and saying, hey, we want to do an
Speaker 1: animated series, will you act in it? And we just
Speaker 1: figured why do we need, these people will do it ourselves.
Speaker 1: We have the distribution on his channel, we can do
Speaker 1: the toys, we can do all this stuff ourselves, and
Speaker 1: we can market it. So we kind of looked as like,
Speaker 1: do we need Disney, do we need Nickelodeon, do we
Speaker 1: need Cartoon Network? Or can we execute this by ourselves?
Speaker 1: And that's really why meat Ball started. It's so interesting
Speaker 1: that once these personalities have the platform, they can literally
Speaker 1: do whatever they want, right, they have the power to.
Speaker 1: But at some point do you step in and say
Speaker 1: don't do that one passion project because there's you'll see
Speaker 1: YouTubers who have a lot of eyeballs and they're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do this one thing that might not
Speaker 1: be the best move for them strategically for their career. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I shove a lot of stuff down, more for specific
Speaker 1: people on our roster than others. But yeah, I have
Speaker 1: to step in sometimes and I just don't think it's
Speaker 1: a good idea. And that's also why they have us there. Right,
Speaker 1: if we just said yes everything they wanted to do,
Speaker 1: then then why why are we so trusted? Right? So
Speaker 1: the other thing that all of our clients trust me
Speaker 1: with is like if Reed thinks it's a good idea.
Speaker 1: Let's do it right. So most of them come to
Speaker 1: us and say, what do you think? And is the
Speaker 1: ultimate goal to transition into a more mainstream world or
Speaker 1: is it more of a business empire they're trying to
Speaker 1: build or is it different for each person? It's different.
Speaker 1: I don't think we need to transition to mainstream. I
Speaker 1: think we're all the guys are already so popular. I
Speaker 1: think the mainstream now needs us more than we need them,
Speaker 1: especially like I told you some of these shows that
Speaker 1: all of our guys turned down, Like we don't necessarily
Speaker 1: need to go on we think something it'll do more
Speaker 1: bad for us than good. You know, Ninjas went on
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon six times. So there's like a love hate
Speaker 1: for Ninja right now. It's like fifty fifty. When I
Speaker 1: meet kids, I'm like, do you like Ninja? Like Nope,
Speaker 1: hate Ninja. Why do you think that? I just think
Speaker 1: he went into mainstream way too quickly, and the community
Speaker 1: felt like he got popular and then he left them behind.
Speaker 1: And so we're really cognizant of that too. Is like
Speaker 1: where are fans at? Like, let's always make sure we're
Speaker 1: catering to our fans first, and if we're going to
Speaker 1: go do something in mainstream media, great, but let's always
Speaker 1: come back to our fans because they're the ones that
Speaker 1: put us in this position. I love that. I love
Speaker 1: that so much. Another layer to that question is what
Speaker 1: if YouTube just kind of becomes irrelevant? Yeah, it definitely could.
Speaker 1: Most of our clients have other businesses where it wouldn't matter.
Speaker 1: I think most of them could stop recording YouTube videos
Speaker 1: tomorrow and they would have, you know, income for the
Speaker 1: rest of their lives through other businesses that they had
Speaker 1: started are currently starting. Well, they'll they'll always be a
Speaker 1: platform to create content on right, whether it's YouTube or
Speaker 1: Twitch or the next iteration of those two things. The
Speaker 1: people that you represent, they want to create content and
Speaker 1: that's what they'll do. Is that what you're well, yes,
Speaker 1: they love creating content, but a lot of them have
Speaker 1: other goals. Not necessarily I want to be YouTube for
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life, something more, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: They use it as a catalyst for it was the
Speaker 1: start of something so much bigger as as I look at.
Speaker 1: And it's obviously different for each individual person. But like
Speaker 1: one of our one of our clients wants to run
Speaker 1: the next Mattel Like. He's like, I have all these
Speaker 1: kids that follow me. I want to run the next
Speaker 1: biggest toy company in the world, because you know, these
Speaker 1: toy companies are struggling to get kids to buy their stuff.
Speaker 1: But I'm over here just selling direct to consumer, and
Speaker 1: I'm probably doing just as good as all of them.
Speaker 1: They all each of their own goals and we just
Speaker 1: help them get there. That's awesome. So Jake Paul was
Speaker 1: on here. I was I mentioned too earlier, and he
Speaker 1: actually said he doesn't want to be referred to as
Speaker 1: a YouTuber anymore. He's like, I'm an entertainer. I don't
Speaker 1: like being labeled a YouTuber, and consider me a boxer
Speaker 1: right now because because right now he's training, and he's
Speaker 1: very seriously training to box, and I, you know, a
Speaker 1: part of you wants to be like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: But then hearing him talk about training three times a
Speaker 1: day and changing his entire you know what, he eats,
Speaker 1: his health regimen and and he's dabbling into all these things.
Speaker 1: But I think he understands that he has a platform
Speaker 1: and so people are going to watch whatever he does.
Speaker 1: Right So in his head, he's thinking I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: be the best boxer. Someone is seriously trained for this.
Speaker 1: Do you find that your clients also have these like
Speaker 1: dream passion things that they would because this was a
Speaker 1: passion of Jake's. It wasn't like a random I want
Speaker 1: to box, He's always liked boxing. Is there anything you
Speaker 1: can tell us about a passion that we may not
Speaker 1: know about one of your clients like Mr Beast or
Speaker 1: Sunday or Unspeakable. Yeah, they do nothing that stands out
Speaker 1: like I want to be a boxer or I want
Speaker 1: to be a musician. None of them want to be musicians.
Speaker 1: So there won't be an everyday bro coming out from
Speaker 1: probably not um not to say he won't do something
Speaker 1: down the road, whether we do a distract or something.
Speaker 1: Please do a distract would be so funny if we did.
Speaker 1: I obviously the fans want us to do it. Nothing
Speaker 1: really stands out. Most of our clients just want to
Speaker 1: do good. They want to use their platform to do good.
Speaker 1: And that's another thing that stands out about all of
Speaker 1: our clients is like they know that little kids look
Speaker 1: up to them and they have this massive platform. And
Speaker 1: so that's another reason why we don't sign people that's where, right,
Speaker 1: because you know, you're this little six, eight ten year
Speaker 1: old kids really looking up to this person every single
Speaker 1: day he's posting a video um and so they really
Speaker 1: like being in that position of like being a role model.
Speaker 1: Have you been in a position where you've noticed because
Speaker 1: sometimes you know that overnight fame can be a little
Speaker 1: overwhelming and you don't have to call anybody out, But
Speaker 1: where it kind of changed the content creator? Or is
Speaker 1: it different with this crop? With our clients, know, we
Speaker 1: keep them pretty grounded. I've definitely seen people where it
Speaker 1: goes to their head or you know, they start making
Speaker 1: a lot of money and they no longer talk to
Speaker 1: their old friends, and it definitely happens. Most of our
Speaker 1: guys are pretty grounded and humble when it comes to that,
Speaker 1: and that's just you know, us getting to know them
Speaker 1: before we sign them. You know, usually our relationships with
Speaker 1: clients starts like thirty two ninety days of just like
Speaker 1: let's get to know each other. I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk business, I don't want to talk brand deals. I
Speaker 1: just want to talk like about you, your family, your aspirations.
Speaker 1: You know where you came from. And that's just why
Speaker 1: we know our guys so well. Not to make a
Speaker 1: blanket statement about Hollywood, but it's it's very rare to
Speaker 1: hear that. You know, a lot of these managers and
Speaker 1: people behind the scenes are really just chasing the dollar
Speaker 1: and they don't really care. From what I've seen personally
Speaker 1: about the core values are not cussing or whatever. It is. Well,
Speaker 1: Luckily to we we operate outside of this city. I'm
Speaker 1: here a lot, but we're in Dallas, Texas. That's where
Speaker 1: we're headquartered. Not to say we won't open a satellite
Speaker 1: office here. And we also don't have a single creator
Speaker 1: that lives in l A. It's not by design either,
Speaker 1: I've just for whatever reason, don't have any clients that
Speaker 1: live here. So what does that look like for you?
Speaker 1: Just on a plane a lots. I'm on a plane
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, October, I don't know she's this summer.
Speaker 1: I was probably in Dallas fifteen to twenty days in June, July, August.
Speaker 1: There's just a lot of travel. I enjoy it, though.
Speaker 1: Jimmy's in North Carolina, Sunday's in South Carolina, Typicals in Vancouver,
Speaker 1: we gotta in Houston, and we have people all over
Speaker 1: the place. I'm in Portland a lot with many lad
Speaker 1: Just how do you manage your time? Forget managing making
Speaker 1: sure that all of these people get the love and
Speaker 1: the attention that they needed. How are you doing that
Speaker 1: self love? I don't know. I meditate every morning, so
Speaker 1: I started meditating in early two thousand eighteen. Is just
Speaker 1: you get a lot of mind fatigue. I also get
Speaker 1: decision fatigue because I'm getting asked by so many different
Speaker 1: people every day, like what do I do here? What
Speaker 1: do I do here? What's this this decision? So decision
Speaker 1: fatigue is definitely a thing. I don't have a ton
Speaker 1: of time left in my day, but I love what
Speaker 1: I do, so it's like I don't really see this
Speaker 1: as work. Like I get to like to do podcasts,
Speaker 1: I get to travel around, I get to do fun stuff.
Speaker 1: We get to animated series. I get to be in
Speaker 1: a Star Wars commercial. I broke againness world record with
Speaker 1: Cam Newton in July, so I now I'm the world
Speaker 1: record holder for the longest catch of an American football
Speaker 1: behind the back, just like I've two nineteen has been insane?
Speaker 1: What yeah? So it was on Cam Newton's channel, so
Speaker 1: he released it. We'll release our version probably in December
Speaker 1: on Mr. Beast channel. But we flew out to Carolina
Speaker 1: and filmed video with Cam Newton and we broke five
Speaker 1: year old records that day with Cam, and I broke
Speaker 1: the behind the back catch one. We also broke like
Speaker 1: longest between the legs catch, most catches in one minute,
Speaker 1: most one hand catches in a minute. Who was doing
Speaker 1: all the catching? You? Cam actually caught the ball, Okay,
Speaker 1: but you caught one. I caught the one behind the back.
Speaker 1: The fun fact everyone he did play football in college,
Speaker 1: so which helped a little bit. It was it was
Speaker 1: fifty seven yards, so the ball was humming when it
Speaker 1: was coming in. Yeah, but I did catch your behind
Speaker 1: the back. So I mean you're kind of in the
Speaker 1: content to I've probably been in fifty videos on Presence Channel.
Speaker 1: Where's your channel? Probably won't ever happen. Yeah, you just
Speaker 1: want to be a good start. If I ever have
Speaker 1: a channel, it'll be not a talk show or a podcast,
Speaker 1: It'll be something business related. I really like what Tim
Speaker 1: Ferris does. This is why I do this show. I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with Tim Farriss, and I love those takeaways that
Speaker 1: you walk away listening to that podcast and You're like,
Speaker 1: what can I learn from this, which is a perfect
Speaker 1: segue for my next question, which was which is going
Speaker 1: to be if you were to give advice. So there's
Speaker 1: somebody who wants to be the next Mr. Beasts, the
Speaker 1: next Preston. There are a lot of those kids out there.
Speaker 1: They see the Jake Paul's, Logan Paul's, they see these
Speaker 1: like glamorous lifestyles. They want to be content creators. What
Speaker 1: is a piece of advice you have to give to them?
Speaker 1: One I made a video on this. You have to
Speaker 1: love it. First of all. If you're just making content
Speaker 1: to make money, you will fail so quickly. I think
Speaker 1: the hard part now as we see these Forbes articles
Speaker 1: how much does Jake Paul make? How much does Logan
Speaker 1: Paul make? And these kids are seeing these YouTube creators
Speaker 1: making so much money, and so they think it's like
Speaker 1: this industry that they want to make videos and make
Speaker 1: all this money, and it's just not realistic. So I
Speaker 1: think kids stepping into this world right now, they're all
Speaker 1: gonna really struggle to make it because they just don't
Speaker 1: love it. Most of the guys that we work with
Speaker 1: they got into this industry because they love making videos.
Speaker 1: Preston has been making videos for about nine years, and
Speaker 1: for the first four and a half to five years
Speaker 1: he didn't make it dime. It's just like I love
Speaker 1: playing video games, I love live streaming, I love making content.
Speaker 1: Will eventually happened, which changed because there are people who
Speaker 1: are still making content ten thirteen years later and they're
Speaker 1: not getting that that boom. Right. Yeah, it was Minecraft
Speaker 1: for him. He found he was playing he had a
Speaker 1: tvn R frags, which is his old channel. He was
Speaker 1: playing Call of dutycs GO and then Minecraft came out
Speaker 1: and he started Preston Place and that's really that inflection
Speaker 1: point that he hit. The same with Mr Beast and
Speaker 1: he has seven years of content on his channel and
Speaker 1: what was the turning point for him? There was a
Speaker 1: few videos. One he gave pizzas. I think he gave
Speaker 1: a hundred pizzas away um to homeless people. I believe
Speaker 1: that was the video. And then he did a Twitch
Speaker 1: donation video and I think that's really when people started
Speaker 1: to pay attention. Okay, who is Mr Beast? What is
Speaker 1: he doing? But every creator that you see who's massive
Speaker 1: has that like inflection point of like when did it start?
Speaker 1: Jake and Logan were on Vine, so they had a
Speaker 1: built an audience already, so when they transistened to YouTube,
Speaker 1: it was a little bit easier. But for most of
Speaker 1: our clients, they were just making YouTube videos since fourteen
Speaker 1: fifteen years old and then and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden they blow up and you see it's crazy and
Speaker 1: blocks and subscribers. Yeah. So my biggest warrior is kids
Speaker 1: getting into this to make money, and it's it's so
Speaker 1: much of a grind that if you don't love it,
Speaker 1: you're going to fail. And I think another misconception also
Speaker 1: with creating content on YouTube is there are other streams
Speaker 1: of income for these content creators, so it's they're not
Speaker 1: just making money on YouTube videos. There's merch. We actually
Speaker 1: had the founder of fan Joy on and we were
Speaker 1: talking about love Chris, So we were talking about a
Speaker 1: lot of these people are making more money selling merch
Speaker 1: than they are making videos. And I think these kids
Speaker 1: see these videos and they realize that they think they're
Speaker 1: going to make millions of dollars just uploading a vlog
Speaker 1: every day. Yeah. I don't even know if David Dobrick
Speaker 1: makes money off his channel. He has four minute videos
Speaker 1: which you can only run a pre roll on so
Speaker 1: maybe any swears, so maybe he has a fifty cent CPM.
Speaker 1: To be quite honest, he probably makes nothing off his channel,
Speaker 1: but he has a very popular podcast. He has a
Speaker 1: very popular merchandise company. His tour was a massive success.
Speaker 1: He's now doing pop up shops, which I'm sure Chris
Speaker 1: talked about. It's like he's just figured out different ways
Speaker 1: to monetize his brand, and the big creators are doing that.
Speaker 1: They understand that YouTube's algorithms going to change one day
Speaker 1: and they're gonna stop making money or we're gonna have
Speaker 1: another apocalypse and ads will not run on those certain
Speaker 1: creators channels. We just saw this with kids channels. YouTube
Speaker 1: basically killed ads on young kids channels, unboxing channels, nursery
Speaker 1: rhyme channels, and said they're not going to monetize them anymore.
Speaker 1: It's like that came out of nowhere. So some of
Speaker 1: these channels that were pulling five hundred million views a month,
Speaker 1: like Coco Melon, are no longer going to make any
Speaker 1: money from ad sense, so they need to figure out
Speaker 1: different ways to make money. And then, speaking of ads,
Speaker 1: do you do you guys kind of have a rule
Speaker 1: of thumb with ads on your videos or what you
Speaker 1: like to do for the viewers? Yeah, well where where
Speaker 1: do we place them? Yeah? Yeah, We've figured out after
Speaker 1: a lot of testing that the best way to do
Speaker 1: it is always a pre role and then an add
Speaker 1: every two minutes and two minutes and thirty seconds, and
Speaker 1: then we usually put an end roll. What are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on a lot of viewers get upset with creators
Speaker 1: for placing ads. What do you have to say to Well,
Speaker 1: I mean Mr Beast gives away most of the money
Speaker 1: he makes on ad sense anyway, So if he didn't
Speaker 1: place mid rolls, then we wouldn't be able to give
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars away to homeless people or give
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty five dollars to homeless shelter for
Speaker 1: Christmas every year. So it's just like most of the
Speaker 1: money is going back into the content. I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that. Okay, So you have such an eye
Speaker 1: for talent. Is there anybody on YouTube right now that
Speaker 1: you're kind of that you're not that is not signed
Speaker 1: to Night Media? Someone on YouTube you've got your eye on.
Speaker 1: You think that they have something going. I know you have.
Speaker 1: They're honestly, isn't like I'm trying to think I don't
Speaker 1: watch a ton of content outside of our clients, because
Speaker 1: you don't even have time to think about signing anyone else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I'm pretty focused on our ten individuals. Are there
Speaker 1: some creators doing some awesome stuff? Yes, there is even
Speaker 1: people that we don't represent, Like I think David's content
Speaker 1: is amazing, it's very authentic. Why do you think people
Speaker 1: watch David dobreg He's funny. His supporting cast is also awesome. Like,
Speaker 1: they're just fun individuals and they're at that age where
Speaker 1: they're like eighteen to two years old, right in that
Speaker 1: college age. They have a large fan They have a
Speaker 1: large fan base of probably sixteen to twenty four, maybe younger.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It's just something about his four minute
Speaker 1: videos too. They're just easy to consume. So there's all
Speaker 1: these like there's a Cloud gang, there's Team ten, there's
Speaker 1: you know, David's career already forgot what they call Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the vlog How could I forget the vlog spot? How
Speaker 1: come you guys don't have a gang name? We don't
Speaker 1: need to have a gang name. I don't know, like
Speaker 1: we're successful without it. I actually Preston. So Preston used
Speaker 1: to have the pack. It was Vick Star Lachlin music No, No,
Speaker 1: Vick Star Laughlin Beijian Canadian and Rob and Preston. They
Speaker 1: were called the pack. That was a Minecraft blew up.
Speaker 1: Do they collab? We don't really do collabs. Night media
Speaker 1: clients clab internally with each other, but we don't do
Speaker 1: a lot of outside collabs. There's a few reasons for that.
Speaker 1: One is we don't want people subscribe to our channels
Speaker 1: that aren't going to click on videos and sub boxes. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if Jimmy would go do a video James
Speaker 1: Charles and two d fifty thousand James Charles fans would
Speaker 1: subdim Mr Beast, then that video hits sub boxes and
Speaker 1: those two people don't click on it. That hurts our
Speaker 1: ctr So that's why we don't. That's why we don't
Speaker 1: do collabs outside of our genre. Right, So Preston will
Speaker 1: do collabs with our kids creators because he knows that,
Speaker 1: oh those fans will click on my videos, but we
Speaker 1: don't do like David Dobre for instance, like I don't
Speaker 1: know if I lover to do a collab with David
Speaker 1: because we don't know if here his fans would click
Speaker 1: on our videos. YouTubers don't think about it like that,
Speaker 1: but they should be because the goal is to have
Speaker 1: a dent active subscribers. When you post a video, all
Speaker 1: of them click on your video. Hence you have a
Speaker 1: high CTR. When you just inflate your subscriber numbers by
Speaker 1: doing collabs, you're actually hurting your channel. If I ever
Speaker 1: start a YouTube channel, all I am forcing you to
Speaker 1: represent you. You know all these What you just said
Speaker 1: makes total sense, but the initial knee jerk reaction when
Speaker 1: a huge YouTuber asks you to collaborate is yes, I'm
Speaker 1: going to get a bunch of new subscribers. But those
Speaker 1: subscribers don't care. They want to see eyeshadow palettes if
Speaker 1: they're on James Charles channel and they're not going to watch,
Speaker 1: and it makes you look back. It's it's why all
Speaker 1: our fans of hit like hockey Stick growth because like
Speaker 1: we understand the algorithm more than anyone probably and we
Speaker 1: really focus on it. For instance, like we have a
Speaker 1: female creator and she came to me and she's like,
Speaker 1: I want to do a collab with this person, this person,
Speaker 1: and this person and they were so far outside of
Speaker 1: like her normal content. I was like, here's what you
Speaker 1: need to understand. Yes, you'll probably gain another two million
Speaker 1: subscribers off these three claps, and those two million people
Speaker 1: will not click on your videos and your channel will
Speaker 1: then start to die. Do you think YouTube viewers are
Speaker 1: that specific with the content they're they're consuming. Yeah? I
Speaker 1: think they sub to channels that they want to watch,
Speaker 1: and sometimes they sub to channels as their creators telling
Speaker 1: them to subdue another channel, and then they'll never click
Speaker 1: on that video ever again, or that creator ever again.
Speaker 1: You don't think it's possibly an opportunity for discovery potentially.
Speaker 1: I just think you can do more harm than good.
Speaker 1: I think if it's in your if you make automotive
Speaker 1: content and you're collabing with other automotive channels, perfect, But
Speaker 1: if you're an automotive channel and you're going to kids
Speaker 1: creators and doing collapse with just anyone, if you're just
Speaker 1: setting yourself up for failure. M hm. So many truth
Speaker 1: bombs are just being dropped at my heart. What happens
Speaker 1: when Mr Beast comes to a year from now and
Speaker 1: wants to completely change his brand the type of content
Speaker 1: he's putting out there, what do you do that? And
Speaker 1: you have all these subscribers that are used to a
Speaker 1: certain type of content. But Mr Beast woke up and
Speaker 1: he has a different vision. Yeah. Well, he's way smarter
Speaker 1: than I am when it comes to like understanding his audience.
Speaker 1: So I would support it because if he's saying he's
Speaker 1: going to do this, then I would trust him. When
Speaker 1: I met him and he had one point seven million subscribers,
Speaker 1: he told me he'd have ten million by the end
Speaker 1: of the year. And this was in February March maybe.
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, let's see it. I was like,
Speaker 1: there's no way you have one point seven you're gonna
Speaker 1: gets to ten million by December. There's no And he
Speaker 1: proved me wrong. So we ended the year thirteen point
Speaker 1: five million or something like that. So if he comes
Speaker 1: to me and says I'm switching up my content, I'll
Speaker 1: be like, all right, let's do it. I love that.
Speaker 1: And then advice for somebody who is in your shoes now,
Speaker 1: not a creator, but somebody who wants to represent creators. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just to add value that when I first started in
Speaker 1: this industry, I didn't even take a commission. It's like
Speaker 1: I will literally work for free, I will do a
Speaker 1: good job, I will deliver and then we'll talk about it.
Speaker 1: So it's like you need to provide value before you
Speaker 1: can just go to someone, throw a contract in front
Speaker 1: of them and say, hey, let me take X percentage
Speaker 1: of your revenue. So it just doesn't work like that.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot more competition in the space, and
Speaker 1: there used to be when I got started. When I
Speaker 1: got started, there was probably two or three people that
Speaker 1: were trying to manage digital influencers. There's especially in this town.
Speaker 1: So I think if you're a young kid, find someone
Speaker 1: that you get along with, that you think you can
Speaker 1: work with for the next decade and provide value. Don't
Speaker 1: try and sign thirty seven people right out of the
Speaker 1: door because it's you're not gonna last. You seem too
Speaker 1: good to be true. How about that you have all
Speaker 1: these knowledge nuggets, plus you have this incredible roster of talent.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see what they all have going on.
Speaker 1: I know you couldn't tell us much. Is there anything
Speaker 1: you can tell us? Just give us one little, you
Speaker 1: know kind of thing. You know, Well, we talked about
Speaker 1: the tree video, so we're going to see a lot
Speaker 1: of YouTubers be a part of this Mr Beast Tree Challenge,
Speaker 1: so it's a dollar to planet tree. So he did
Speaker 1: get other YouTubers involved. We're gonna have a ton and
Speaker 1: it's not within the your community, your well all the
Speaker 1: night media clients will probably get involved. Others. I won't
Speaker 1: say anyone's name yet. We'll wait for those announcements, but
Speaker 1: some people that have been on this podcast are probably
Speaker 1: going to be involved. So yeah, and like I said,
Speaker 1: the goal is to plant twenty million trees by Earth,
Speaker 1: so we'll start out so Mr Beast will start out
Speaker 1: with probably a million trees and then we'll go get
Speaker 1: nineteen more million planet and yeah, it'll be that's it.
Speaker 1: That's crazy or five one C three is coming up,
Speaker 1: so it's we'll tackle homelessness in America. So that's another
Speaker 1: thing Mr Beast has been working on. Whether the video
Speaker 1: goes up in late two thousand, nineteen or twenty, I
Speaker 1: think we're still trying to figure out. He just he
Speaker 1: has a lot of projects coming up and including coming
Speaker 1: on our show. Sorry, sorry, Jimmy, you might have to
Speaker 1: come on the show. Don't apologize. Tell him you're welcome.
Speaker 1: He doesn't necessarily love doing interviews, but we'll see what
Speaker 1: we can do. Do you see how fun I am?
Speaker 1: Its light fresh, This is great bubble. What else can
Speaker 1: I say here? We have a great view of I
Speaker 1: think we're in Burbank. We are in Burbank or the
Speaker 1: Heart Studios. Yeah, we'd love to have all of your
Speaker 1: people on. Yeah, we have to get a few more on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're also awesome. I'm excited to have I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna have precedent on sometimes in October, and I'm super excited,
Speaker 1: especially if you haven't had a kids creator on yet.
Speaker 1: I'm really interested to talk to him because he has
Speaker 1: such unique content out there and it's doing really well.
Speaker 1: Everybody's doing really listen. Seven eight channels, eight channels. Pulling
Speaker 1: quick question about that, What is the benefit to having
Speaker 1: more than one channel? I've always wondered this. Why are
Speaker 1: people opening more than one channel? Why wouldn't you just
Speaker 1: want all the views? Yeah, that we go down a
Speaker 1: rabbit hole here too. So it goes back to the
Speaker 1: point of our people clicking on videos and subboxes. Let's
Speaker 1: just take video games for example. You start a channel
Speaker 1: on Minecraft and then all of a sudden, Fortnite comes out,
Speaker 1: so you have pivot to Fortnite, and then oh, Fortnite dies,
Speaker 1: let's pivot to another game. And channels that have done
Speaker 1: that in the past have usually struggled to pull consistent
Speaker 1: views over the course of three to four years. And
Speaker 1: so what we looked at in Preston's case was, why
Speaker 1: don't we have a main channel that does real life
Speaker 1: because real life content is doing incredibly well right now
Speaker 1: on YouTube, and if we want to do Fortnite, we'll
Speaker 1: put it on a separate channel. If you want to
Speaker 1: make Minecraft, we'll put it on a separate channel. If
Speaker 1: you want to, you know, film a different video game
Speaker 1: that comes out in the next six months, let's put
Speaker 1: it on a different channel. And it's turned out really well.
Speaker 1: So he's kind of separated his audiences again because we
Speaker 1: want kids to click on it when it's in sub boxes,
Speaker 1: not have a bunch of Minecraft Fortnite rollblocks and Call
Speaker 1: of Duty videos on the same channel when most of
Speaker 1: his audience is only interested in Minecraft. So there was
Speaker 1: definitely a strategy there. Oh yeah, yeah. I was always like,
Speaker 1: what are they doing? Why? I was pitching present on
Speaker 1: changing his main channel from Minecraft to real life content
Speaker 1: a year ago and he finally pulled the trigger and
Speaker 1: it's worked out really well. Awesome. I feel like we've
Speaker 1: learned so much today. Thanks so much for stopping. And
Speaker 1: I know you have a probably a flight to catch. No,
Speaker 1: I'm here for another day, so I'm taking meetings the
Speaker 1: rest of the day and tomorrow, and then I fly
Speaker 1: home and I'll be back then six days. Hopefully you
Speaker 1: get a nap in between, hopefully, hopefully. Behind the Influences
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and TDC Media