Speaker 1: Welcome to Behind the Influence, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and TDC Media. To say that we always just
Speaker 1: kind of like went by the flow, that I guess
Speaker 1: that's not completely true. Like we we did have this
Speaker 1: vision of what Smash could become. We've been friends for
Speaker 1: for nineteen years. So the moment we did that, we
Speaker 1: found a remarkable increase in in our sanity. There was
Speaker 1: a moment in time that I didn't know if Smash
Speaker 1: was going to continue. Ian he talks, is in the house. Guys, Hello,
Speaker 1: you don't know who Ian is? What do you know?
Speaker 1: I know that was aggressive, but if you don't know
Speaker 1: that name, we got to reevaluate life. I mean, the
Speaker 1: internet is a big place. I never assume anybody you're
Speaker 1: pretty a video of mine, but I assume so. And
Speaker 1: the reason you're here is because of that. You were
Speaker 1: one of the pioneers in the YouTube space. And not
Speaker 1: only did you pioneer in a world that a lot
Speaker 1: of people didn't understand back in two thousand five, by
Speaker 1: the way, when people weren't really doing the YouTube thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, YouTube wasn't really a thing. It wasn't a thing.
Speaker 1: It just recently, I think in the last decade has
Speaker 1: become a thing in two thousand five. Starts with a
Speaker 1: little a silly video, just you and your friend And
Speaker 1: did you ever know that it would turn into this
Speaker 1: empire that has employed so many people and made so
Speaker 1: many people so much money. And yeah, we had no
Speaker 1: no idea whatsoever. It was just us, you know, messing
Speaker 1: around with the webcam. We started with lip syncs. We
Speaker 1: did the Power Rangers theme song. That was our first
Speaker 1: slip sync, and then we did a Mortal Kombat and
Speaker 1: then Pokemon and then the Pokemon theme song music video
Speaker 1: was the video that like really really blew up and
Speaker 1: for I think a year and a half it was
Speaker 1: the most viewed video on YouTube. And back in the day,
Speaker 1: there was no discovery ability on YouTube. So the only
Speaker 1: way that you could find quote unquote quality content, which
Speaker 1: that video looking back, is not the only way you
Speaker 1: can find quality content is if you went to the
Speaker 1: most viewed page like most people of all time. Okay,
Speaker 1: so all those videos that had the most views must
Speaker 1: be the best videos on YouTube. That would be the theory.
Speaker 1: But you know, our videos up at the top, and
Speaker 1: it was like, think, why do you think about so
Speaker 1: many views? Because nothing else like that was on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and you guys were just kind of creating your own lane,
Speaker 1: and people were curious because that's what I would think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think music is universal. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: why all the top view videos are are music videos.
Speaker 1: So I think that's one thing Pokemon is, you know,
Speaker 1: the sort of global unifier who doesn't like Pokemon. At
Speaker 1: that time, a lot of people were doing lip syncs,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people were just kind of standing
Speaker 1: there and just lip sinking. But we were also throwing
Speaker 1: in jokes into it, so like kind of like criticizing
Speaker 1: the Pokemon while we were singing the song. Just the
Speaker 1: fact that the like Pokemon in a strange way is
Speaker 1: like animal abuse. So we had some like jokes. I
Speaker 1: never thought of it. I don't need to left, but
Speaker 1: I never thought about it. Yeah, I mean, you're you're
Speaker 1: forcing it's it's it's no different than a than a
Speaker 1: dog fight, and we don't allow that. So we, uh,
Speaker 1: we kind of made some some jokes in the video.
Speaker 1: I think that's what kind of made it stand out
Speaker 1: from the other sort of lip syncs is we actually
Speaker 1: had a take on it. I'm not saying like it's
Speaker 1: supreme art, but Also, back in the days of YouTube,
Speaker 1: you're not really competing with that much quality content. Anything
Speaker 1: that's like sort of above like the worst quality ever
Speaker 1: would automatically rise above everything else. So it had a
Speaker 1: little bit of thought behind it, some creativity and use music.
Speaker 1: What compelled you guys? First of all, for people who
Speaker 1: don't know, who did you do the video with? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I did the video with my childhood friend Anthony.
Speaker 1: We met in like the sixth grade, and we did
Speaker 1: a share boredom. We just graduated high school. I was seventeen.
Speaker 1: He might have been seventeen as well. Yeah at the time,
Speaker 1: he's also seventeen. You guys go to the same high school. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we went to the same elementary school, middle school,
Speaker 1: high school, best friends, and we're both bored. All of
Speaker 1: our friends were going off to real colleges. We were
Speaker 1: staying in Sacramento and we're going to go to a
Speaker 1: community college. So we were pretty bored. Over the summer.
Speaker 1: We had actually started making videos and posting them on
Speaker 1: my Space before we even knew what YouTube was. The
Speaker 1: only reason we found out about YouTube so early was
Speaker 1: because somebody had stolen our video and uploaded on YouTube. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's how we actually found out about YouTube was
Speaker 1: because somebody had ripped our content. So we started upload
Speaker 1: kind of a compliment. Yeah right, yeah, so we started
Speaker 1: uploading on there, it started getting the views, and to us,
Speaker 1: over a hundred views was insane. And at that time,
Speaker 1: you could just refresh YouTube and see the counter go up,
Speaker 1: so like we would just like refresh and see like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, there's five more views. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's ten more views. So that was that was a
Speaker 1: weird experience for us. What was monetization like back then?
Speaker 1: Did you guys even think that this was something you
Speaker 1: could make money from that early on? There's no way
Speaker 1: of monization. I mean, like I guess we we had
Speaker 1: sort of like the first Patreon in a sense where
Speaker 1: we just not like solicited our viewers for donations, but
Speaker 1: we said, like, hey, we want to film with more
Speaker 1: than just a webcam that's tied to the computer. We
Speaker 1: we would like a handicap. So people actually donated money
Speaker 1: to us to buy a handicam so that we can
Speaker 1: actually go beyond Anthony's bedroom, and then we put their
Speaker 1: names and their like donation, I think we can put
Speaker 1: their donation amounts like on the screen of our videos.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the video, it's like, thanks
Speaker 1: to this person for donating thirty So ahead of the times,
Speaker 1: because I feel like that was a very early iteration
Speaker 1: of what actually ends up happening if you fast forward. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the same time with the same thing with merch,
Speaker 1: So we wanted to keep doing it. And then once
Speaker 1: the Pokemon theme song music video was removed for copyright infringement,
Speaker 1: we were like, hey, you know, we should probably start
Speaker 1: making more original content that's not using other people's stuff.
Speaker 1: And so from that point on, pretty much we were
Speaker 1: we were wholly original content, not using copyrighted music or
Speaker 1: you know, images or whatever. So we then sort of
Speaker 1: transitioned to sketch comedy, and that's kind of the road
Speaker 1: we went down. So sketch comedy for the first few
Speaker 1: years of YouTube was kind of like the king of YouTube,
Speaker 1: Like everybody wanted to do sketch comedy, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's channels like balloon Shop that really pays me off.
Speaker 1: Why would you knock the drink out of his hand?
Speaker 1: What would you do that? Why would you do that?
Speaker 1: The Lonely Island Lonely Island, obviously, Anie Sandberg, Kiva and Jorma,
Speaker 1: who then went on to SNL and then bigger and
Speaker 1: bigger things. Hello, welcome to the party. Hi, I've never
Speaker 1: met you before. You know, just two guys and we're
Speaker 1: having a good time. Derek Comedy where Donald Glover Childish
Speaker 1: Gambino came from that sad one to YouTube. Sir sat
Speaker 1: Opposite Day, Sir James Goody Endings? Or can I not
Speaker 1: ask you something about Opposite Day? No? But sketch comedy
Speaker 1: is really hard to continue and it's expensive. It's more
Speaker 1: expensive than just doing a vlog, Like you need to
Speaker 1: like hire people, and you know, writing sketches and shooting
Speaker 1: it and editing. It takes a little bit longer than
Speaker 1: normal kinds of things. So a lot of people burnt
Speaker 1: out on making sketches. You're right out of high school.
Speaker 1: What makes you think I'm qualified to be doing sketch Because,
Speaker 1: like you said, it's not just about hiring people. Like
Speaker 1: you could have the money. I know people who have
Speaker 1: all the money in the world. But if you're not
Speaker 1: a good writer, if you don't have good ideas, it's
Speaker 1: not gonna fly. So how did you guys get to
Speaker 1: the place where you were qualified enough to do successful
Speaker 1: sketch comedy. I don't think we're qualified at all. Well
Speaker 1: something made you think you were. I mean, it's really
Speaker 1: we just kind of paid attention to the feedback on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and I know that's not always the best idea to
Speaker 1: read the comments, but some people have some pretty constructive
Speaker 1: criticism that are acting sucked and our ideas sucked. So
Speaker 1: we continue to go to community college, but only in
Speaker 1: classes that applied to whatever we were doing. So we
Speaker 1: took some acting classes, we took some writing classes, we
Speaker 1: took some improv classes, took some film classes, and then
Speaker 1: once we burned out on those. Once we did all
Speaker 1: those classes, we just left. But with with sketch comedy,
Speaker 1: you know, it takes a lot of time. We were
Speaker 1: out of high school, so we're living in our parents
Speaker 1: house and you know, start to have bills, so you
Speaker 1: have to find some way to create an income. And
Speaker 1: so the choice was either well, you try to find
Speaker 1: a job and then find some time to make sketches,
Speaker 1: or you can commit fully to creating sketches and try
Speaker 1: to build a business doing that. So that then turned
Speaker 1: our focus. What did family think about That family was
Speaker 1: totally known. They were down there anything better, well, because
Speaker 1: I think now it would be a lot easier for
Speaker 1: you know, a fifteen year old or sixth year old
Speaker 1: to convince their parents, like, look, Jake Paul is making
Speaker 1: twenty two million dollars year, so can I two thousand five,
Speaker 1: two thousand six. Whenever you were doing it, that was
Speaker 1: not the case. So you didn't have a case study
Speaker 1: to point to and say, these people are making a
Speaker 1: living doing this, I'm gonna build an umpire. You had
Speaker 1: literally nothing but your own drive and an idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we had viewers. You had viewers. I think my
Speaker 1: dad's an accountant, so he kind of understands business, and
Speaker 1: I think we had viewers. So that had to event something.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, well, if we're getting similar views to
Speaker 1: like a local TV show or something like, that's gotta
Speaker 1: that's gotta mean something like, there's gotta be a way
Speaker 1: to to monetize that. There was no way at that
Speaker 1: time in regards to add revenue. I remember our first
Speaker 1: brand deal we did for five dollars. That was a
Speaker 1: big deal to us. But we we found other ways
Speaker 1: of monetizing. We uh started selling merch and I think
Speaker 1: we were some of the first people on the platform
Speaker 1: to do that. We knew this like guy that worked
Speaker 1: out of a warehouse down the street that was a
Speaker 1: screen printer. Pretty sure he had one leg, but he
Speaker 1: never showed us. Um, but we need I need to
Speaker 1: find out. So we So then we started like marketing
Speaker 1: our merch and like these little sort of like funny
Speaker 1: commercials at the ends of our videos, Oh my god, yes,
Speaker 1: what what look at my shirts? Oh my god, stoppers shirt.
Speaker 1: We would have this guy screenpin all the shirts. Then
Speaker 1: Anthony had a program that would take all the orders
Speaker 1: in with like their names and their addresses, and then
Speaker 1: we would package all the shirts ourselves. That we would
Speaker 1: then load all the shirts into his car and then
Speaker 1: we would drive to USPS and get very ugly looks
Speaker 1: from the workers there because we'd be mailing out maybe
Speaker 1: hundreds of shirts at a time. But that was the
Speaker 1: way that we first sort of supplemented the income for
Speaker 1: the business. That was that was so entrepreneurial. I knew
Speaker 1: I was going to suck that up. Yeah, every time
Speaker 1: I tried to say that one. But you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, guys, entrepreneurial of you? Yeah, I mean we
Speaker 1: didn't have any I mean We didn't have any choice.
Speaker 1: It was like that was our only option. It was
Speaker 1: trying to sell merch to create an income, to stay
Speaker 1: out of a job or work a job and not
Speaker 1: be able to create content. So and you're so young
Speaker 1: to figure that out. Yeah, well, I think I think
Speaker 1: I probably had some advice from my dad to we
Speaker 1: didn't really have any other choice. It's just like that
Speaker 1: was the only way to do it at the time.
Speaker 1: And you're still going to school at this point, and
Speaker 1: what were you majoring in? Was it anything to do
Speaker 1: with this world? That was just general ed. We didn't
Speaker 1: really know what we wanted to do. I think Anthony
Speaker 1: thought he would get a business degree, but I think
Speaker 1: he didn't really know quite what that meant. He's just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, business sounds nice. And he was already
Speaker 1: he was running the website on his own, so he
Speaker 1: kind of already had like a knack for entrepreneurial kind
Speaker 1: of like, look at you. He just said it the
Speaker 1: first time, Did I do it? Like? It was like, Butter,
Speaker 1: I'm really jealous, you'll get it, you know. We we
Speaker 1: didn't have any sort of set plan, and our parents
Speaker 1: didn't have any expectation for us to become lawyers or
Speaker 1: doc there. So there was nobody pushing us in a
Speaker 1: specific direction. So that kind of allowed us to kind
Speaker 1: of just see that this is a big opportunity that
Speaker 1: it was our only chance to possibly take, so we
Speaker 1: just kind of went full into it. But just like
Speaker 1: they weren't pushing an agenda, it doesn't really sound like
Speaker 1: you necessarily had an agenda either. It wasn't like some
Speaker 1: people start a YouTube channel because the ultimate goal is
Speaker 1: to be an actress, a series regular, or they want
Speaker 1: to break into music. It just seemed like you guys
Speaker 1: were throwing things to the ceiling and seeing what's stuck
Speaker 1: that you enjoyed doing. But it didn't seem like you
Speaker 1: had a well we're doing this because we want to be,
Speaker 1: you know, movie stars in five years. Yeah. I'm a
Speaker 1: very much go with the flow kind of guy. So
Speaker 1: for me, I didn't have aspirations. I guess I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say like, well, they'll look at you. It just fell
Speaker 1: into a lot of success. I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: think you worked very hard for that. I didn't have
Speaker 1: I didn't have any I didn't feel like I deserved anything,
Speaker 1: you know, I think a lot of people actors, you know,
Speaker 1: they put a lot of time into this dream of
Speaker 1: becoming an actor, and then when they get sort of
Speaker 1: a taste of success, then they feel like I deserve this,
Speaker 1: Like anything anything that comes my way, I don't feel
Speaker 1: like I deserved it. I mean, I worked towards it
Speaker 1: and it happened, and then I just try to, you know,
Speaker 1: not take anything for granted. And that's just kind of
Speaker 1: been the way that I've always kind of looked at
Speaker 1: our career. It's like just kind of go with the flow,
Speaker 1: go with like wherever this crazy thing is taking us.
Speaker 1: Would you say that that has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with the fifteen plus years of success this brand that
Speaker 1: wasn't a brand at the time has seen because of
Speaker 1: your mentality and because of your attitude towards everything you
Speaker 1: were doing every day. Yeah, I think so. And I
Speaker 1: wasn't looking to use Smash as a platform to become
Speaker 1: a television actor or you know, a director or anything like.
Speaker 1: To me, all those things are awesome and I love
Speaker 1: doing that, um and I'll take those opportunities if they come.
Speaker 1: But Smash has always made the most sense to me
Speaker 1: as like that's my sort of base, That's what I understand,
Speaker 1: and it's what I think that we're good at and
Speaker 1: everything else is is nice, But there's probably other people
Speaker 1: they're better at it than me. So you're creating content,
Speaker 1: you're making you're getting little brand deals here and there,
Speaker 1: you're selling merch just to keep things afloat. When did
Speaker 1: it become something that you felt like wasn't a hustle struggle.
Speaker 1: It was more of like, Okay, we have a system
Speaker 1: going and this is this is a real business. Was
Speaker 1: there like a video that went viral? Was there a
Speaker 1: moment a validation? Can you remember a time when it
Speaker 1: felt real, because I'm sure it took a while to
Speaker 1: feel like a real quote unquote real Job's say, in
Speaker 1: like two thousand seven, we were contacted by um, this guy,
Speaker 1: Barry Bloomberg. He was Disney television executive that had left
Speaker 1: Disney and he was kind of looking for the next
Speaker 1: thing to focus on and he sort of saw, you know,
Speaker 1: online media as being this sort of next thing. So
Speaker 1: he started working with us and was like, if you
Speaker 1: guys want to do this for a long time, you
Speaker 1: need to start thinking of Smash as like a comedy brand.
Speaker 1: So it was now small at this point, you had
Speaker 1: evolved into Smash. Yeah, I mean Smash was a name
Speaker 1: that we had actually had since sophomore year of high school. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that was not like evolved into the name Smash.
Speaker 1: You guys always kind of called it Smash. Yeah. That
Speaker 1: really worked out because, like at the time of like
Speaker 1: the beginning of YouTube, everybody was like their channels were
Speaker 1: just like their names. If we didn't have Smash, we
Speaker 1: might have called our channel like Ian and Anthony Productions,
Speaker 1: which doesn't exactly lend itself to longevity. But luckily we
Speaker 1: had this great name because it was a it was
Speaker 1: an inside joke that our friends that came up with,
Speaker 1: and then Anthony created a website for it, and then
Speaker 1: when the YouTube video started picking up, we're like, well,
Speaker 1: let's just continue to have it tied to this Smash name.
Speaker 1: At that time, it was just Anthony and myself as
Speaker 1: the faces of Smash, and it was Barry that you know,
Speaker 1: sort of said, if you guys wanted to be doing
Speaker 1: this ten years, twenty years, whatever years down the road,
Speaker 1: it needs to be more than just you two. It
Speaker 1: needs to be a brand. And that's something that we
Speaker 1: weren't thinking of the time. I don't think that was
Speaker 1: something anybody's thinking about at the time. Nowadays, every Instagram
Speaker 1: model is like, this is my brand. Everything is happiness
Speaker 1: and beauty and positivity. Everybody's thinking like what their brand
Speaker 1: is now. But back then it's like, no, our channel
Speaker 1: is like we're just like two guys. But it made
Speaker 1: a lot of sense to say that we always just
Speaker 1: kind of like went by the flow that I guess
Speaker 1: that's not completely true. Like we we did have this
Speaker 1: vision of what smash could become. I mean just from
Speaker 1: the beginning, you screenprinting your own merch you may have
Speaker 1: been go with the flow and attitude of like where
Speaker 1: this goes, but you were very much proactive in everything
Speaker 1: that you guys did, like the to the Patreon, your
Speaker 1: own version of Patriot. Yeah, that ended once we started
Speaker 1: like actually getting money from merch. Were like, okay, we
Speaker 1: can't just ask for money from We can't just be
Speaker 1: like can I have five dollars? We can give you
Speaker 1: a shout out at the end. Yeah, we stopped. We
Speaker 1: stopped doing that. We're like, okay, that's just kind of wrong.
Speaker 1: And I'm not I'm not talking Patreon. I think Patreon
Speaker 1: is great, but you were not pay I mean you
Speaker 1: were just saying five dollars please. Yeah. Yeah, We're like, hey,
Speaker 1: we'll show you on the video if you give us.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that that changed once. That probably paid for that.
Speaker 1: I mean people do. But if we were look back
Speaker 1: and be like Tatiana Bruckly, Um, so Barry comes along
Speaker 1: two thousand seven. This was I believe around the time
Speaker 1: when YouTube started their partner program two thousand right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, so that is when the partnership program.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you were one of the very first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were one of the first ten channels actually. For
Speaker 1: the partnership program. YouTube was like, hey, we'll pay you
Speaker 1: this base amount of money and we're gonna put ads
Speaker 1: on your videos. And that was something we were nervous
Speaker 1: about at first because there had never been an add
Speaker 1: on YouTube, like maybe on like a banner on the
Speaker 1: front page, but to have an ad play before the
Speaker 1: video or just at that time, it wasn't even pre
Speaker 1: role pre roles weren't even a thing. It was just
Speaker 1: a pop up they put in our videos. Our fans
Speaker 1: freaked out, They're like, what is this garbage? Oh you
Speaker 1: guys sold out, like, well, we need to do this
Speaker 1: if we're going to continue to create videos, and and
Speaker 1: at that time, like the audiences didn't really have an
Speaker 1: understanding of, oh, if they want to keep creating content,
Speaker 1: they actually need to make money doing this. Now everyone understands,
Speaker 1: and now like audiences are excited when they see YouTubers
Speaker 1: or instagrammers or even tiktoker's get brand deals. They're like,
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, get that money, get that money. But
Speaker 1: for probably the first six years or maybe even beyond that,
Speaker 1: whenever we did a brand deal, we just got shipped
Speaker 1: on all the time. Was it the nature of the
Speaker 1: brand or was it any time you did a brand
Speaker 1: Because I could see if a brand was like completely unaligned,
Speaker 1: people being like, why are you doing a Tampax? Not
Speaker 1: that did that, I mean, but if they came and
Speaker 1: they you know, had some good you know, we we
Speaker 1: we toss some good creative back at them. Tampax hit
Speaker 1: us up. And I feel like, if there's somebody that
Speaker 1: could pull it off, I would be you guys. I
Speaker 1: think it's you know, also, some some people were very
Speaker 1: young and don't understand that. You know, when you leave
Speaker 1: your parents house, you need to make money. And I
Speaker 1: think you know to to a degree, like a lot
Speaker 1: of the things we're doing are brand integrations, which at
Speaker 1: that time nobody had really done on YouTube. Obviously, like
Speaker 1: television does it. You know, American Idol has a Coca
Speaker 1: Cola cup next to them, But also a lot of
Speaker 1: those companies didn't trust online brands to get their message
Speaker 1: across well. So a lot of the messaging that we
Speaker 1: had to put into videos was insane, like you have
Speaker 1: to say this slogan and you have to do this,
Speaker 1: and you have to do that, and it's like at
Speaker 1: that time, a lot of brands didn't understand like no,
Speaker 1: like allow this person to work your and into the
Speaker 1: creative rather than forcing them to create what's essentially a commercial.
Speaker 1: I cannot relate more. I'm not going to name the company.
Speaker 1: I was working for a company that they did a
Speaker 1: deal with Turbo Tax, which I'm on a red carpet
Speaker 1: for the Grammys, and they're like, work in Turbo Tax.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what do you fucking mean? They so then
Speaker 1: I was like, so have you done your taxes? Miley
Speaker 1: cyrus like it was just and the way that they want,
Speaker 1: you know, And then they didn't. They weren't thinking ahead.
Speaker 1: And I think it's really great that they do trust
Speaker 1: content creators, but trust content creators to come up with
Speaker 1: a creative way to do it because but I also
Speaker 1: think in everyone's defense, it was such a new concept,
Speaker 1: and I just remember being so uncomfortable being like a
Speaker 1: little way and have you done your taxes? I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you didn't, but have you? It was
Speaker 1: just awkward, and I just remember being in these awful
Speaker 1: situations with these brands. Turbo tax scarred me a little. Yeah,
Speaker 1: shout out, I don't blame you. Yeah, we had some
Speaker 1: pretty bad ones. And it was also just like they
Speaker 1: were very controlling about the creative and they'll be like
Speaker 1: silly violent things that would happen in our videos, and
Speaker 1: they'd be like, oh, I'm sorry, could the lawn flamingo
Speaker 1: not hit her in the head. You're like, no, it
Speaker 1: has to hit her on that. Yeah, that's just too violent.
Speaker 1: That's too violent. I'm sorry, Like, we don't want to
Speaker 1: promote violence. So it's just we we had to deal
Speaker 1: with a lot of that garbage. And I feel like
Speaker 1: brands are a little bit better now and they trust
Speaker 1: the creators a little bit more, and now they just
Speaker 1: if they want to market their product to young people.
Speaker 1: They have to work with us because they're not watching television.
Speaker 1: We are the only option for these companies. And someone
Speaker 1: would much rather watch you throw a flamingo at someone's
Speaker 1: head to sell a product than like some I'm being like,
Speaker 1: you should get this product. It just it doesn't work
Speaker 1: if they're smart. But I mean not every not everybody's
Speaker 1: there yet. I think brands are definitely coming around. I'm
Speaker 1: seeing brands really trust content creators, especially on Instagram, these
Speaker 1: like short little videos and people are able to make
Speaker 1: up their own sketches to promote whatever. I'm seeing that
Speaker 1: a lot, and it's very refreshing. But you're right, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of brands it's still probably don't fully get
Speaker 1: it yet. A lot of the bigger brands are still
Speaker 1: very concerned about this idea of Middle America where they
Speaker 1: think that everybody in quote unquote Middle America is this
Speaker 1: sort of like very delicate, you know, very religious, like
Speaker 1: if they say anything about violence or sex, like they're
Speaker 1: gonna leave this brand forever. And it's like, no, they're
Speaker 1: just people, but they're very concerned about offending. If anything,
Speaker 1: I think people are so unaffected now and people want
Speaker 1: fun and a little bit more just lighthearted stuff. I think,
Speaker 1: and especially I think the people that you're targeting the millennials.
Speaker 1: I love that term, but you know, you influence the millennial,
Speaker 1: the people that spend the most money. Those people they
Speaker 1: want to see you doing it, so you start getting
Speaker 1: brand deals, money is coming in, you're dealing with content.
Speaker 1: This was still just you and Anthony at this point, right,
Speaker 1: we're still the faces we started on. One of the
Speaker 1: other things that that Barry was kind of pushing for
Speaker 1: is early YouTube, you're doing everything yourself. There's nobody that
Speaker 1: was really building a business off of YouTube. There's no
Speaker 1: sort of guidelines on what's a healthy way to work
Speaker 1: on online. Every YouTuber is working seven days a week,
Speaker 1: fourteen hours a day. And Barry was one of those
Speaker 1: people that's like, you need to treat this like a job,
Speaker 1: and in in that way, you're taking the weekends off,
Speaker 1: you're hiring people to help you. The moment we did that,
Speaker 1: we found a remarkable increase in in our sanity, and
Speaker 1: I think that's something that like I have always tried
Speaker 1: to preach to other YouTubers. I'm like, the moment you
Speaker 1: make any sort of extra income, like put the workload
Speaker 1: onto somebody else that can help you create content, whether
Speaker 1: it's editing, or whether it's an assistant or whether it's
Speaker 1: a producer, like anybody that can take that workload off
Speaker 1: off what you're doing. Artists are very controlling about the
Speaker 1: thing they're putting out, so they have this mindset that like, oh,
Speaker 1: but nobody can do it like me, And that's just
Speaker 1: not the truth for a lot of YouTube content, a
Speaker 1: lot of people like I just can't find an editor
Speaker 1: that understands what I'm doing, Like, I just I just
Speaker 1: can't do that. It's like, there's a lot of very
Speaker 1: talented people out there, and like, as long as you
Speaker 1: just stay with them and teach them the sort of
Speaker 1: way that you create content, they can get there. Was
Speaker 1: it hard for you, guys? Obviously you're starting to hire people.
Speaker 1: You edited your own stuff from the beginning of time.
Speaker 1: Now other people are editing your content. Was that like
Speaker 1: a hard thing because it is hard to let go,
Speaker 1: like you said, if you're creative, Was it hard for
Speaker 1: you and were there any challenges with becoming bigger because
Speaker 1: in a sense now you have very involved it's not
Speaker 1: just you and Anthony sitting at a table collaborating saying
Speaker 1: we want to do this, there's people invested in involved
Speaker 1: that have an effect on your content. Was that hard
Speaker 1: for you as far as the creative and writing process goes,
Speaker 1: we were. We were writing everything for the first maybe
Speaker 1: five for six years, so creatively we were still we
Speaker 1: still had control. As it went on and as the
Speaker 1: channel expanded, we couldn't do everything, so we hired an editor,
Speaker 1: and then later on when we started doing another channel,
Speaker 1: we hired a writer who's actually still with us, so
Speaker 1: he's been with us for about nine years. I really
Speaker 1: believe in collaboration. I don't think I have the best ideas.
Speaker 1: I think I have ideas, but I'm perfectly okay with
Speaker 1: with passing them by somebody and say, hey, is this
Speaker 1: a good idea or is this a shit idea? And
Speaker 1: if they're like shit idea and they can explain why,
Speaker 1: then I'm okay with that. And for me, I think
Speaker 1: that collaborating with people is only going to create a
Speaker 1: better product unless you're a genius than unless you're Kanye West. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure,
Speaker 1: no comment, but I think, you know, I think in
Speaker 1: most cases, collaboration never hurts, or at least never hurts
Speaker 1: to run it by a second opinion, I couldn't agree
Speaker 1: with you more so. I read an article actually that
Speaker 1: said that on multiple occasions, I think it was like
Speaker 1: three or four different time periods between like two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight and two thousand and fifteen, Smash was the
Speaker 1: number one most subscribe to channel on YouTube. Do you
Speaker 1: pinch yourself when you think about that, because it's massive,
Speaker 1: especially as we get later in time like two, when
Speaker 1: there are so many content creators and so many YouTube channels.
Speaker 1: What do you think attributed to this consistency and success? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the thing is we were always doing the
Speaker 1: content that we wanted to do at the time. We
Speaker 1: were never chasing trends. Like the reason why we hit
Speaker 1: the most subscribed four times was because a certain trend
Speaker 1: would hit or YouTube would shift an algorithm. Then a
Speaker 1: creator would get this crazy bump, crazy bumping views, crazy
Speaker 1: bumping subs. Then they would rise above everyone else, and
Speaker 1: then the algorithm would shift or trend would shift, and
Speaker 1: then their content would no longer be favored, so then
Speaker 1: they would maybe sort of drop out of favor. But
Speaker 1: we were always just constant, which is remarkable because it's
Speaker 1: not just like, oh, you guys took over two thousand eight.
Speaker 1: It was like to be able to consistently be at
Speaker 1: the top, you've got to be evolving NonStop and knowing
Speaker 1: what your viewers want because your viewers are also growing,
Speaker 1: and so there's this like balance of like what do
Speaker 1: we want to do as creators because you're evolving, and
Speaker 1: then what do our fans want? It has to be
Speaker 1: such a hard thing to balance and figure out, like
Speaker 1: what the secret sauces in a sense, But you guys
Speaker 1: figured it out. I mean, I mean, there's the algorithm
Speaker 1: is always shifting, so it's it's never it's never like,
Speaker 1: oh we figured it out, We're good forever exactly. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, every once in a while, we'll have something
Speaker 1: that will that will hit and will be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that works, so then let's kind of keep going down
Speaker 1: that route. But there's obviously people right now that are
Speaker 1: killing the game, killing it way more than us, Like
Speaker 1: we just look like little teeny tiny tadpoles compared to
Speaker 1: them because they've figured it out. But do you think
Speaker 1: it's a temporary figured it out? Like I think I
Speaker 1: think as long as as long as they're savvy, then
Speaker 1: then they could probably stay up there forever as long
Speaker 1: as the YouTube keeps favoring that content. But you know,
Speaker 1: YouTube gets something like three hours of video every second
Speaker 1: or something like that, So what you see on YouTube
Speaker 1: is just this teeny tiny little tip of the iceberg
Speaker 1: above like all the other stuff on YouTube. So I've
Speaker 1: always kind of, you know, had this this mentality that
Speaker 1: it could be over the next day. That's why we
Speaker 1: had always put focus on our website because we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we can at least control whatever happens on the website.
Speaker 1: We own that we own, you know, anything that happens there. Nowadays,
Speaker 1: you know, the sort of landscape online is completely shifted.
Speaker 1: Like you don't go to websites anymore. How many websites
Speaker 1: do you go to that aren't Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,
Speaker 1: And you're not even you're going to the app on
Speaker 1: your phone. You're not even like actually going to website. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: websites are irrelevant now. It's it's become completely whittled down
Speaker 1: to a few social media sites, in my opinion, So
Speaker 1: our strategy of build the website that that became less
Speaker 1: and less relevant as it went on, So like, okay,
Speaker 1: we just need to focus on social media. Then unfortunately
Speaker 1: you don't. We don't own that. So it's just kind
Speaker 1: of like our strategy has always been, like, don't discount
Speaker 1: the other social media, like don't put all your eggs
Speaker 1: in one basket. Don't mean yeah, don't be just a YouTuber,
Speaker 1: like also be on Facebook. Like we get a ton
Speaker 1: of yous on Facebook. We're also on Twitter and Instagram,
Speaker 1: not quite on Snapchat, you guys dabble and twitch at all. Well,
Speaker 1: the thing with twitches that Twitch is in a weird
Speaker 1: kind of place and that if you want to be
Speaker 1: a prolific person on Twitch, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to stream something like five hours a day. I mean
Speaker 1: you have to consistently be on Twitch to even for
Speaker 1: anyone to even notice you. We've had good meetings with
Speaker 1: the people at Twitch, and I think it's an awesome
Speaker 1: platform and I love for us to be on it,
Speaker 1: Like I'd love to find a way for us to
Speaker 1: be on it, But if it's gonna take me being
Speaker 1: on Twitch for five hours a day, three times a week,
Speaker 1: I just physically can't do that with all the other
Speaker 1: stuff we do. So I totally believe in Twitch and
Speaker 1: I think it's a great platform. I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: what happened with the sort of public opinion on the
Speaker 1: creators on there, because I think I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the creators on there being worked to the bone.
Speaker 1: I mean just in the news this week with streamers
Speaker 1: and people who are in competitive gaming, like all the
Speaker 1: news that came out with bass Plan and it's a
Speaker 1: whole world for sure. The thing I love about Twitch,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure this is one of the reasons you
Speaker 1: love it, is the real time interaction with your fans
Speaker 1: that like, you can't beat that. But I know that
Speaker 1: you guys do interact and you have engagement on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you do Facebook lives and things like that,
Speaker 1: but allow you to connect. But you would think, because
Speaker 1: you guys do fall into the gaming category that it
Speaker 1: would be a natural but not. It's it's a little
Speaker 1: it's different for us because we've never been about competitive
Speaker 1: gaming exactly. So like a lot of times brands will
Speaker 1: come to us and they'll be like, so smash e
Speaker 1: Sports and we're like, no, like have you seen my content?
Speaker 1: Like so we have Smash Games, which is another channel
Speaker 1: that we have and that's our that's our gaming stuff.
Speaker 1: But none of us are good gamers were our sort
Speaker 1: of outlook on gaming. For for Smashes, it's it's a
Speaker 1: group of friends having fun and that's that's how it's
Speaker 1: always been. And none of us are particularly good at it.
Speaker 1: That's one side of twitches, like people that competitively play,
Speaker 1: people that are good. You have the Ninjas and the
Speaker 1: te Fews of the world. That's definitely not us, and
Speaker 1: I think there's there's obviously room for both. You were
Speaker 1: talking about how you in your head always said this
Speaker 1: could end any day, and there have been some close
Speaker 1: calls in the career who got a touch on it,
Speaker 1: but you're still going strong. You specifically are still you know,
Speaker 1: carrying out the Smash legacy. Anthony is no longer um
Speaker 1: a part of the brand, but still very close friend
Speaker 1: of yours. Can you just for people who may not
Speaker 1: be aware of there were things in the last I
Speaker 1: would say like five years that affected the brand and
Speaker 1: how you kind of ruled with those times. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I say five years is probably a good a good
Speaker 1: distance to go back. So you know, one of our
Speaker 1: big direction we want to go Smash was grows Smash
Speaker 1: beyond Anthony and myself sort of the idea that I
Speaker 1: had always had is you know, you look at Smash
Speaker 1: like a Saturday Night Live that has a cast of talent,
Speaker 1: we would be the sort of Lauren Michaels of the
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live. And that's the direction that I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to go. I don't think I need to be
Speaker 1: the star of the channel forever, and I still want
Speaker 1: to be heavily involved. But I think, you know, if
Speaker 1: if you look at our content now, we have people
Speaker 1: like Shane Top, Courtney Miller, Olivia Sway Like, it's just
Speaker 1: incredibly talented people and they bring something to the table
Speaker 1: that I can't bring. You built that table, you better
Speaker 1: not forget it. But like I'm I'm also just like
Speaker 1: a white guy from suburban Surprise, I'm just a white
Speaker 1: dude from suburban northern California. Like I, I have a
Speaker 1: certain life experience that I can draw from. But the
Speaker 1: beauty of comedy is that it comes from life experience.
Speaker 1: So I can only tell one side of comedy. So
Speaker 1: if I can bring in people from all walks of
Speaker 1: life to tell their sort of side, than that's representing
Speaker 1: more of the country or the world. All these people
Speaker 1: started joining on, you guys get acquired a couple of times, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, not specifically Smash, but through changing hands a
Speaker 1: few times. Can you talk us through the different companies
Speaker 1: that you kind of had to associate with along the
Speaker 1: way and then severed ties with Yeah. So I think
Speaker 1: the very very first thing was we we needed to
Speaker 1: grow beyond what we were capable of becoming on our own.
Speaker 1: So in two thousand leven I think, we sold Smash
Speaker 1: to a company called Alloy Digital, and they were a
Speaker 1: company that they were starting to acquire other digital entertainment properties,
Speaker 1: one of which you know very well, Clever, which was
Speaker 1: an entertainment news company. So for us, it was it
Speaker 1: was a chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
Speaker 1: And it was obviously a risk, but every choice in
Speaker 1: business is a risk, and at the beginning it seemed
Speaker 1: like a really good idea. Obviously, they helped us grow
Speaker 1: to a point that we couldn't have gotten to ourselves.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying it was all a bad thing.
Speaker 1: I think that they helped us greatly, and I mean
Speaker 1: we're we're paid just fine doing it, so it's like
Speaker 1: it wasn't a totally bad bet. So eventually Alloy then
Speaker 1: merged with Break Media, famous for the break website, which
Speaker 1: was at the time just uh. It was a lot
Speaker 1: of like, oh, here's a girl in a bikini. That
Speaker 1: was kind of their business model. I think I'm not
Speaker 1: the biggest fan of that content. But so anyway, they
Speaker 1: merged and became Defy Media. Then they would acquire more brands,
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, that's fine. They they gave
Speaker 1: us so much creative freedom to do what we wanted
Speaker 1: to do. They didn't meddle in that side of our business,
Speaker 1: so in that respect they were great. Apparently they made
Speaker 1: some bad business, bad business decisions, and the company effectively collapsed,
Speaker 1: which left Smash in a weird place because I didn't
Speaker 1: known it anymore, but it was no longer in their possession.
Speaker 1: There was a moment in time late last year that
Speaker 1: I didn't know if Smash was going to continue. Somebody
Speaker 1: very wonderful at Defy gave me access to the logins
Speaker 1: to the YouTube channels during the downtime. Legally was they
Speaker 1: don't know. I think I think for I think it
Speaker 1: was wise for all parties to allow us to create
Speaker 1: content and keep the channel alive. Because the bank that
Speaker 1: was selling the properties obviously they don't want a depreciating assets,
Speaker 1: so for us to continue to create content and keep
Speaker 1: the brand alive, that's just you were. You were creating content,
Speaker 1: not getting paid, just just hoping to keep this thing
Speaker 1: alive what you did. So, I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that people were getting paid and people
Speaker 1: actually put in a lot of work. Are our longtime
Speaker 1: director Ryan Todd, who has been with us for ten years,
Speaker 1: he's living up in Acrimento. He was flying down to
Speaker 1: help us shoot these videos with no pay on his
Speaker 1: own dime. And our cast also not getting paid. They
Speaker 1: were coming like we had some crew people, like longtime
Speaker 1: crew people showing up to help us shoot. They're all
Speaker 1: doing it for no pay. It was just like it
Speaker 1: was a really cool thing to to sort of see
Speaker 1: like this is something that we all put work into
Speaker 1: and to see people you know, have a commitment to
Speaker 1: it at that level is really really awesome. Well, it
Speaker 1: goes to show that people really believed in the in
Speaker 1: the brand and the product, right, I mean, you've been
Speaker 1: in this for so long. They're basically saying we we
Speaker 1: believe in your baby, and we don't want it to
Speaker 1: go away. Yeah. Yeah, And I think yeah, everyone believed
Speaker 1: in it, and they and they believed in what it
Speaker 1: could still do in the future. So well it worked out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it worked out. I mean I I set out to
Speaker 1: try to pull together investment to pull it out myself.
Speaker 1: The timeline was too crazy for that. And then last minute,
Speaker 1: Retton Link stepped up. Retten Link, who are also long
Speaker 1: time YouTubers. They run a show called Good Mythical Morning.
Speaker 1: They are also childhood friends like Anthony and myself, and
Speaker 1: they stepped up and they acquired Smash and it's been really,
Speaker 1: really awesome. And now we can announce that Rhett in
Speaker 1: Link have bought Smash and made us a part of
Speaker 1: Mythical Entertainment, which we are so excited about because they
Speaker 1: are creators helping creators. It really is an awesome thing.
Speaker 1: We get to do whatever we want and we're super
Speaker 1: super excited. That's so great. I mean, this is you
Speaker 1: don't hear stories like the story of Smash, which is
Speaker 1: why I really wanted you to come in, because you
Speaker 1: guys defied every odd You stayed true to who you were.
Speaker 1: You didn't kind of as we touched on, you didn't
Speaker 1: roll with the trend. You kind of just stayed consistent,
Speaker 1: and because of that consistency, you gained new fans. But
Speaker 1: then I'm assuming a lot of your Day one fans
Speaker 1: are still with you. There. There has to be, because
Speaker 1: our demographics or I mean it's it's eighteen to twenty
Speaker 1: four is the largest demo, but then the second largest
Speaker 1: demo according to YouTube, And obviously I'm sure there's kids
Speaker 1: are using their parents accounts, but our second largest demo
Speaker 1: is thirty five, So those are like the Day one
Speaker 1: I think, so. Yeah, So there's definitely there's definitely a
Speaker 1: group of legacy viewers people have been watching since the
Speaker 1: beginning or relatively since the beginning. And then there's the
Speaker 1: people that are that are just now finding Smash. That's incredible.
Speaker 1: And so Anthony is no longer with Smash. You guys
Speaker 1: are still good friends, I assume, Yeah, we stay in touch.
Speaker 1: Was it hard for you to make the decision to
Speaker 1: stay or was that just not even an option not
Speaker 1: to when your other half essentially leaves. Yeah, we definitely
Speaker 1: talked about it because he he told me like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking about leaving, and and he asked me
Speaker 1: to keep it a secret for a little bit, what
Speaker 1: for a little while, So he could sort of get prepared.
Speaker 1: And obviously I honored that Anthony is leaving Smash. This
Speaker 1: is not click bait, this is not a sketch. I
Speaker 1: just need to do it's best for me, and that
Speaker 1: right now for me is to focus on creating stuff
Speaker 1: as an independent creator on my own channel. And that's
Speaker 1: something that I fully support and I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: see what Anthony goes out there and create some I'm
Speaker 1: excited for him. Thank you. I like, I'm talking about you,
Speaker 1: like literally, I'm excited for you. Did you feel pressured
Speaker 1: to jump ship with him just because you had started
Speaker 1: it together? Or were you just he he asked me
Speaker 1: if if I wanted to leave, and and he's like,
Speaker 1: you're thinking about leaving? I was like, I just doesn't
Speaker 1: feel right. It's just not doesn't feel like the right time.
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of those kinds of decisions
Speaker 1: you just have to trust your gut. You might not
Speaker 1: be able to put it into words. Why, But like,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's so much more we could do
Speaker 1: with Smash, And I think it's such a cool Brandon
Speaker 1: for me. The ability to employ, you know, thirty people
Speaker 1: is is a source of pride for me for myself,
Speaker 1: and I think what he did like he needed to do,
Speaker 1: and I don't think what he did was selfish in
Speaker 1: any way. Also, being being a solo creator isn't attractive
Speaker 1: to me. Like I said, I like collaboration, and you
Speaker 1: guys were the dynamic duo. It was just it was
Speaker 1: Ian and Anthony. So that had to be a transition
Speaker 1: for you as well. Well. At that point there was
Speaker 1: already the the other cast, so that that was something
Speaker 1: that was started maybe about four years ago. And the
Speaker 1: company that was, you know, Defy, they were very insistent
Speaker 1: on like forcing them into the content, like, Okay, they're
Speaker 1: just gonna be in the videos now are we talking
Speaker 1: about like the so Hankies and the Jovins of the world,
Speaker 1: and that was Smash Games. But yes, but they were
Speaker 1: also doing crossover into some of your content, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that made a little bit more sense because we
Speaker 1: were starting a whole new channel. It's like they're gamers
Speaker 1: and we're gamers. That in a less sense, but it
Speaker 1: was the people like Courtney Miller, Shane top Le, No Grossman,
Speaker 1: olivious way. So you didn't feel completely on your own
Speaker 1: in the sea of what do I do? You had
Speaker 1: you had a great team at the at the point
Speaker 1: that Anthony left. Our channel was more than just E
Speaker 1: and Anthony by by the time he left. But there
Speaker 1: was obviously some really painful transition periods when we started
Speaker 1: introducing the cast four years ago, because the company insisted
Speaker 1: on just throwing the people in there, like, that's not
Speaker 1: how YouTube works. This isn't the Disney Channel. You can't
Speaker 1: just hire a bunch of young people and throw them
Speaker 1: on and expect people to be okay with that. Were
Speaker 1: you in a position that you could voice that no, no,
Speaker 1: I mean I voiced it, but you weren't in a
Speaker 1: position where it had weight Because now this the company,
Speaker 1: huge company is just too bad. We're paying them, so
Speaker 1: you need to use them, I mean for us and myself.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll go with the flow. So it's like,
Speaker 1: okay if you say so, And we tried to do
Speaker 1: it and as natural of a way as possible. But
Speaker 1: with YouTube you can't lie. You can't, well you can,
Speaker 1: but eventually catches up to you. But you can't like
Speaker 1: bullshit your way through your content. So you know your
Speaker 1: fans would call you out in two seconds. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people were like, who are these
Speaker 1: new people, Why are they doing this? And it was
Speaker 1: very clear it had to happen. I think it could
Speaker 1: have been a little bit softer of a of a transition,
Speaker 1: but it happened. Some people got mad, but then people
Speaker 1: then realize like, oh, they're literally just helping the content
Speaker 1: be better, because you can't just continue to do the
Speaker 1: same thing for fourteen years, like you have to evolve
Speaker 1: and it can't just be Ian and Anthony sitting in
Speaker 1: a living room on a couch for every single sketch,
Speaker 1: and that's what it was for for what felt like
Speaker 1: too long. So in hindsight, fifteen fourteen years later, you
Speaker 1: can whisper into young Ian's ear and tell him one
Speaker 1: piece of advice that might make things transition smoother business
Speaker 1: deals better. Would there be something that you would, in
Speaker 1: hindsight tell younger I I don't think so. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think obviously there was. There was things that didn't
Speaker 1: work out, but that's still worked out in a sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, whether it was like a bad brand deal
Speaker 1: and we got backlash or you know, some sort of
Speaker 1: bad business deal, or like oh we hired this person
Speaker 1: and they weren't great, Like that's all part of learning.
Speaker 1: So whatever bad things happened, they happened, and we became
Speaker 1: better because of it. Absolutely, it actually shaped your journey
Speaker 1: and probably taught you, you know, how to get over
Speaker 1: the hurdle. And you guys are thriving. Now. How many
Speaker 1: I think I've saw twenty four million subscribers across it
Speaker 1: might I might even be think we're twenty five something.
Speaker 1: We were we were stuck. We were stuck at twenty
Speaker 1: two million for like I think, like a year because
Speaker 1: just our content was not was not in the right place.
Speaker 1: And then once once we got things correct and we
Speaker 1: started doing the things that we felt like we needed
Speaker 1: to do, you it immediately changed. Can you wrap your
Speaker 1: head around it's a big number. Twenty five million people
Speaker 1: wait for your content. That's a lot that's subs and
Speaker 1: that's also people that subscribe maybe eight years ago that
Speaker 1: are that moved on, So it's not necessarily million people
Speaker 1: that are watching. Okay, fine, but still I mean, starting
Speaker 1: from a couch doing lip singing videos, fast forward fourteen years,
Speaker 1: you've built an empire that huge beheamoths of companies have
Speaker 1: wanted to buy. It started on a couch you and
Speaker 1: your best friend that's got to be a pinch me.
Speaker 1: It's weird. It's pretty weird. I mean, you're so in it,
Speaker 1: it's your life, so you probably don't see it that way.
Speaker 1: But from the outside it's an insane story. I I agree,
Speaker 1: it's insane, and thank you for sharing you with us today.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see where Smash goes in the
Speaker 1: next couple of years. Do you have any do you
Speaker 1: have a vision for what you think? Let's not even
Speaker 1: do a big one, but like, where do you see that?
Speaker 1: Where do you see Smash in the next year? Let's
Speaker 1: go super small? Yeah. Well, we we got back on
Speaker 1: our feet in February with Mythical and if these past
Speaker 1: four months are indicative of where we're going that I
Speaker 1: feel very very positive about our future. That's awesome. It's
Speaker 1: been nothing but good ship. The ship is going to
Speaker 1: get better and better, like the biggest, best ship you've
Speaker 1: ever seen. Yeah, and you know what we're ending on that.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for stopping by. I'm really excited
Speaker 1: for everything that you have going on, big big things,
Speaker 1: big big ships. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me
Speaker 1: on here to talk about my ships. Now all day,
Speaker 1: you can always come and talk about your pooh. All right,
Speaker 1: I just said pooh, and we're definitely just going to
Speaker 1: cut right now. Hi guys, thanks for listening. Behind the
Speaker 1: Influence is a production of I Heart Radio and t
Speaker 1: DC Media