Digital Social Hour - Getting 100 Million Views on YouTube & Future of Podcasting | Eddie Pinero #236

Episode Date: January 16, 2024

On today's episode of Digital Social Hour, Eddie Pinero talks about why he went all in on running, where he sees the future of content and podcasting and how he grew his YouTube channels. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What are some things you do to keep yourself motivated? Well, what do you want to do? What excites you? That's your North Star. Out of what you did today, what pushed you towards your North Star and what didn't? Long story short, when I'm feeling unmotivated, it's an audit of what I'm doing throughout the day

and reminding myself, hey, this is where you want to be. This is what excites you. This is what lights you up. Is what you're doing taking you there or are you moving just to move? Welcome back to the show, guys. I'm your host, Sean Kelly. We're back on the Digital Social Hour.

I've got with me a great guest for you guys today. 150 million views on YouTube, inspiring millions of people. Thanks for coming on today, Eddie. Hey, Sean. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah. So I found your channel

and I was watching the videos and that's the type of content I used to watch when I was just starting my journey and it really got me in the right mindset. So I love what you're doing for people man i appreciate it dude that's what it's all about yeah it's uh it's always the reason that i create the reason i do what i do is because i feel like so much of the time it's a little mind mindset shift a little perspective shift away from just recreating that momentum absolutely to hear that yeah it's awesome so what was your mindset

shift before you started doing this like Like, what was that moment like? Yeah, it was, you know, I like to point to Greg McKeown's book, A Lot of Essentialism. And so it was at a chapter in my life where it was exploratory. And I knew I wasn't happy. And I know a lot of people find themselves in that place, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. So it was a process of elimination and cutting out the things that I didn't enjoy doing. You know, and just trying the, you know, the creative road. I was taking the video camera out.

I was playing guitar, playing shows in Boston, producing other musicians. I was creative writing, doing all kinds of stuff until I found that sort of intersection of, yes, I love this, and yes, it adds value to people around me. And it's like, all in, baby. There's people around me. It's like all in, baby. There's your business model. There's your passion all in one place. Go. Yeah, I think once you find that, it's so easy to work because it doesn't even feel like work.

Yeah, exactly. But it does take a while for some people. It took me a good amount of time too because I think at first you've got to stack some bread and it might not be the happiest thing that you're doing. But I think once you can get there, then you can kind of find it easier. Right. Well, that's yeah.

And I'm sure you felt that same way. It's like, yes, getting to that place is where it's exciting and you can wake up and crush and feel good about it. And there's passion and purpose. But there's that sort of valley of despair before that. Right. It's like when you jump off and you leave the stable thing to find that thing is a lot of discomfort and there's a lot of hurt ego involved.

And it's like, can you push through that? I like to tell the story of being in Boston with a couple of my friends who were very successful and just meeting new people, especially we're young single guys out there, right? And the question is always, what do you do? And I found it. no one talks about this. Like I really found this, the most challenging part was,

you know, it's like, I work for a senator. I work for Goldman Sachs. I'm like, I have a YouTube channel idea, right? It's just not like, it was hard for me to do that. Especially back then. Right? Yeah. And so, you know, it was just buckling up and being like, trust yourself, trust your vision,

trust what you're doing here. And yeah, I think people need to understand that. Nice. So you mentioned earlier, you were cutting negative things out of your life when you were depressed or whatever. What were some of those big things that you had to cut out? I would say generally it was the idea. And it's funny looking back now, it seems so obvious, like it just not, not proud of being there, but finding that switch is one of the most important things I've ever done. Following directions, following orders, never thinking about how I want to live life. It was always like, what am I supposed to do?

You've got to get good grades, so you go to good college, so you can get a good corporate job, so you can climb the ladder and get promoted. It took me to my mid-20s to look around and say, what do you want? Because this is not it. You can't be driving to work every day hoping you get a flat tire. That's not life. Right. Right. And so, yeah, it was, it was putting myself in a position to say no to some of that stuff. Yeah. And you know, that's exactly what I did. I mean, it felt stupid being, you know, writing speeches, you know, I, and it took years before financially I saw that

exponential growth, right? It's creating content, telling stories, sharing ideas without that feedback. And so for me, it was just, yeah, it was locking in and, uh, and being persistent. And I like to really emphasize that because there's a lot of growth hacking and stuff now. And trust me, I understand the value. Like no one wants to hit their head against the wall forever, but the expectation can't be that you're just going to wake up and crush it. Right. There's some dedication. There's it's a it's a long road of deep work and expertise that puts you in a position to then grow exponentially. Absolutely. And yeah, I'd like to hammer that home for people. Yeah, it's not an overnight thing like people think it is because

of social media. Exactly. But I'm glad you said that because I was similar. Just grew up in the system. Didn't even question it until I was probably 18. And I feel like it's so late, just 18 years, just going to school, not even questioning the things we're learning, the people we're learning from. And you look back at it, you're like, wow, we were controlled. Right? Yeah. It's like give yourself

permission to step outside that i go to the bathroom like it's crazy yeah i was you know joking around like this is um not long maybe like six months after leaving the corporate job just i lived in boston at the time and just taking a run at 2 p.m my mind was so you know ed you you work and you take lunch from 1 to 2 and then you go back to your desk. Like I felt guilty for running when I knew people were working. I mean, that's how locked into this sort of procedural existence I was. Yeah, and, you know, it just speaks to that transition that's got to happen.

There's a lot of give in life. There's a lot of space. You just have to see it. Absolutely. So a lot of people struggle with motivation. You're good at staying motivated. What are some things you do to keep yourself motivated? Well, it's constantly assessing where I'm at

in relation to my North Star. I think when we're unmotivated, we lose our purpose. We lose our sense of direction. We're doing things just to do things. And so, you know, let me put it this way. There's an inclination to overthink things and when we should be reeling things in and simplifying. I'm not motivated. I don't feel good. I'm not excited about this. Why? Well, what do you want to do? What excites you? That's your North Star. What'd you do today? A, B, and C. Out of what you did today, what pushed you towards your North Star and what didn't?

Right? We build up a lot of minutia and a lot of things. Again, it comes back to that, being reflective and looking around and assessing what you're doing. For me, long story short, when I'm feeling unmotivated, it's an audit of what I'm doing throughout the day and reminding myself, hey, this is where you want to be. This is what excites you. This is what lights you up. This is what you're doing taking you there or are you moving just to move? I really love that because people don't ever audit their days. They don't really evaluate what they did. They don't write it down. They don't

give it a positive or negative rating. That's so simple. Everyone can do that, and I feel like it could help in the long run, right? Yeah. It's funny how many things, and it's not a one and done thing. Like for me, it's a repeated conversation. I like to take walks and really think about that stuff. And like how many things sneak in to your life that you do and they become part of your day to day, but they don't bring you anything. They don't light you up. They don't make you better. They're not pushing you towards where you want to go, but we do them. And I think, yeah, that recognition is huge. Nice. What age were you when you really found happiness, like just pure happiness? Did it take a while? Yeah, I think happiness, and it's funny, I

actually wrote a speech about this. I get this message maybe more than any other. And it's, Eddie, how can I be happy all the time? Right. And to me, that is just a tremendous like misconception. We're humans. We have a range of emotions. We're up, down, everywhere in between. Life is not all rainbows, butterflies and bliss. Right. And I think the first thing is understanding that. And then the second thing is, you know, when things do go wrong, when the wheels fall off the metaphorical wagon to be able to look around and say, okay, this is part of life. This isn't ideal, but where's the value? Like, what can I take from it? And it's not the most intuitive thing. Like, when we're going through our own hell, it's not intuitive to be like, hey, there's something great in here, right? And I get that.

I'm, you know, practical in that sense. but the reality is the worst things we go through give us you know they become our greatest gifts and i think you know that conversation hey this hurt is going to become something it's going to mean something you can get through it you've gotten through every storm before so give yourself grace and understand that there's value here those little conversations are huge i love love that, and it's a mindset thing like we were talking about earlier, because some people, terrible things happen to them, but they let it eat at them, right? But you're saying learn from it, become better.

Yeah, I mean, I'm saying a lot of times there's sort of the stoic idea that we can't control a lot of our emotions. We're going to feel up, down, everything in between. There's something human about that, but what we do have the power to do is pause and reflect and ask ourselves what we're going to make of it. My TEDx talk, Running in the Rain, was about that almost exactly. It was how the worst moments in my life, or the scariest, ended up bringing me to Mose Valley. The idea is, you know, it was a cold morning in Boston, Massachusetts. I ran before work every

day. It's just kind of like my thing. And one morning, it was like sleeting. Like a January morning, frozen rain. I look out the window, I'm just like, I don't want to do it. Like, it didn't make sense. I'll run at the gym,'ll go later whatever and uh you remember like talking myself into going and uh you know it was uncomfortable and sucked for about 10 minutes but then you acclimate and i came back and i just felt like this is something that very few people would do not because they couldn't but because it sucks and it's uncomfortable and uh doing that made me feel like the type of person who does the difficult thing. And that bleeds into everyday life.

And so when I left Boston to start my media company, I mean, same, at that metaphorical doorway. It's easier not to go, should you? Same thing speaking. I spoke at the MGM Grant and it was like palms were sweaty, like just, you know, and you have every, it's almost like your mind is trying to find ways to get you out of it. And so just by stepping into that, yes, you acquire the skills,

but also you teach yourself that you do hard things and there's value to that. So that day you went on the run, you felt like David Goggins. I did. Yeah, I did. Yeah, it's hilarious. It just seems so trivial. It's like, why would I do this? But those things make you over time.

Something about running, man. I used to be a distance runner too, and the runner's highs, you just get so much clarity. I recommend running for a lot of people. It a good stress reliever right to form a meditation yeah it's beautiful you know there's nothing like running um and i think too we're so locked in technologically that you know it gives us moments of silence and peace that seems obvious but look at your screen time right how often are you giving yourself 90 minutes of straight peace and calm and thought? We don't do that a lot.

Not often. What's your screen time per day? How many hours? Oh, man, it ranges. The caveat being I do, obviously, a lot of work for my phone. So the consuming hours versus the working hours are... That makes me feel better. Because I'm at like six, I think.

But I'd like to tell myself I'm probably working for about five. Yeah. Yeah. That makes me feel better. Yeah. I mean, that's responding to DMs, emails, creating content, editing content. It's all in that box. So meditation.

I know you've spoken about this. What role does that play in your life? For me, and it's funny, I understand meditation has a very you've spoken about this. What role does that play in your life? For me, like, and it's funny, you know, I understand meditation has a very specific meaning to specific people. It's had a lot of flexibility to me. You know, sometimes it is going outside on the porch and, you know, just breathing for 15 minutes. Sometimes it is a run and just being at peace with myself. Sometimes

it is, uh, you know, journaling the idea, the overarching theme is you need to cut away from the fast pace of your day to day and be alone with your thoughts. Right. Yeah. I mean, as long as that's happening in some capacity, uh, that's, aim yeah i agree have you tried the wim hof method yet um i started uh doing ice bath ice bath yeah yeah there's a place uh that opened up uh near me called the space and i just yeah they have like little uh tubs and just hop in how many degrees is it it ranges it's funny the the earlier you go the colder the water is oh yeah yeah yeah but uh i think between 38 and i've seen as high as 55 38 is low yeah most people do like 50 i think no it's for the most part it's in the low 40s okay yeah yeah it's cold and how many minutes are you in there uh five or six yeah it's all mental man it is yeah it is it's uh it's like the biggest thing that taught

me is uh you just get in yeah you know because it's it's so unbearingly uncomfortable that if you're touching it or trying to get in slowly you'll talk oh yeah right just jump in there you just set the timer first like 20 seconds are the worst right and then probably yeah and then the end like uh you know when you start shivering that that may be more mental discomfort than anything else but like when you are aware that your body is shivering, something about that creates panic. It's like a fight or flight almost. Exactly.

But that's actually the part that's good for you, the shivering. Yeah, that's what I've heard. Yeah, so they say not to wrap yourself in a towel or anything. They say just to wait it out. Yeah, and that's usually what I do, sauna for about 10 minutes before and then pop right in. Going to the YouTube side, you built an incredible business there over 150 million views. I mean, how did you scale to that

level? Consistency brother. Yeah. It was, uh, you know, it's, there are, are, are seasons in, in life for sure. And in my business, I can certainly say the same. And, uh, you know, I'm at a position now where I'm pivoting, but for about eight, seven or eight And, you know, I'm in a position now where I'm pivoting. But for about eight, seven or eight years, you know, it was write and create and add value. You know, and that's really, you know, my thought was if I'm adding value to millions of people, if I'm the 1% at what I do, there's never going to be an issue monetizing anything, right? So just get really good. And so I've, you know, in the past, like the first couple of years, like I'm barely even in my videos. I'm not spending time on micro content or stories. You know,

there's sort of a couple of philosophies. It's like, you want to spread yourself thin. There's a lot of social media platforms, a lot of opportunity. But for years it was no. YouTube, right? Hammer it. Let this be your thing. And now that I have the resources and the reach and the opportunities, now it's like all systems go on scaling

and getting your message to more people. So it's certainly been a pivot and somewhat of a progression. Which videos were the most viewed ones on your channels? It's the compilations. The really long three-hour compilations that you'd think most people would say, I don't have three hours. But yeah, people really enjoy just kind of setting it

and walking or driving or whatever it is they're doing. Yeah, it's crazy how life comes full circle because I'm almost positive I used to listen to those in college and now you're on a podcast with me. It's so funny how that happens. Yeah. It's crazy how life comes full circle because I'm almost positive. I used to listen to those in college. Yeah. And now you're on a podcast with me. It's so funny how that happens. It's crazy. So when you look at motivational speakers and you look at the greatest ones, who's on your Mount Rushmore top four motivational speakers all the time? Oh man, there's so many and the styles are so different. I'm going to put Jordan Peterson there,

even though he certainly wouldn't call himself a motivational speaker, but I think his stuff is very engaging. I think you have to put Tony Robbins there, sort of the OG. Man, who are the other ones? What about Les Brown? I love Les Brown. Les Brown. Yeah.

Maybe Les Brown and Eric Thomas, just because I feel like they are, yeah, they're the sort of foundational, you know. It's a good list, man. Can't argue that. I like the Peterson one. I'm listening to his audio book literally right now, actually. Oh, really? Yeah. That guy, man, he's something else. He's a brilliant mind. Yeah. Brilliant. Who are some people like that you watched a lot and, a lot and took some lessons from them? It's from a lot of different places. The delivery and the way I like to create is through storytelling, but there's a lot of... I pull my music background and almost a poetry perspective where I'm speaking to music. And so a lot of my inspiration comes from things I read.

It comes from musicians that I loved. It comes from art or actors or story. You know, it's just life experiences, obviously. A little bit of everything. Like there's an example. When I was a kid, I listened to something corporate. And so the singer in that band has just, it seems like every time he finds stability and success in his band, he sort of broke down and moved on to another project.

That's so intriguing. But then, you know, as time goes by, it's like imagine the courage to build something and say, you know, I've changed. This is no longer the right size, so I'm going to adjust and move into something that feels good for me. And the courage to continually break down and rebuild. So that would be a piece I would take from him. Or you can point to anybody, really, and find the value in what they do

and their unique take on the world. And yeah, share a story on that. So you were big on school growing up. Are you still big on learning these days? That's something I feel like a lot of people stop doing after college. Yes. I think the landscape there has changed dramatically. You know, it's funny, like college definitely for me, it was one of the most important things I've ever done. And that's for two reasons. It's because of being on the rowing team there, D1 Athletics. Oh, nice. Yeah, I thought I worked hard.

I had no idea until I did that. And then writing, like learning how to write. I was a political science major, so you really learned how to be analytical and put your thoughts in a way that I never would have done prior to that. So it was valuable for me. But as time goes on and the resources are out there, with YouTube and Audible and all these podcasts, we're in such an incredible place, information age, where you can have a curiosity

and the means are there to just 10 exit, 20 exit. Delve fully into that curiosity. So to me, I think what education means has changed. It's not necessarily a degree. Now it's what are you willing to commit into reading and learning and watching the videos and listening to the podcast. Absolutely. If I was running a university right now, I'd be very worried. Yeah, you wonder, right?

They've got to be hurting, right? I see application rates are going down at Ivy Leagues. I see colleges slowly starting to fizzle out almost. It makes sense intuitively, especially with the prices going up. Did you pay $40,000 a year or something crazy? Yeah, an exorbitant amount. What was that like having debt at a young age? People are struggling with that right now.

They're living with their parents it's super stressful yeah it was uh i mean it was i had a a job right out of school for about four years before i left so you know when there was that piece it was uh you know something that was manageable okay and yeah it wasn't until leaving that um that space and not having that income and really betting on yourself that that's when it's like, you know. You realize how beautiful baseline can be, right? When you're worrying about stuff you never had to worry about before. So, yeah, that was a good perspective shift for sure. So was that transition from that 9 to five corporate lifestyle you did for four years

to entrepreneur pretty difficult on you mentally? Oh, it was tough. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was some of the most rewarding experiences put me at the table with some of the most incredible people in my life, but also some of the most difficult, lonely. There were times where I was self-defeating. It's altering the way the mind sees work, where you exhaust energy and you get value back.

It's like an exchange. I'm like, well, what do you mean? Now I can go out on my own. I could spend three weeks on a project, think it's going to change the world, put it out, and no one cares. That's a hard thing to wrap your mind around. You know, but that's, that's what you have to learn to endure. And every entrepreneur knows that it's, you're playing the long game. It's not personal. Sometimes you swing and you hit a home run. Sometimes you strike out. Yeah. But yeah. Dude, I'm glad you mentioned the lonely. Cause

that's not really talked about, but that first year I started, man, I didn't talk to anyone. I forgot how to talk. Yeah. Like I literally locked myself. I'm not even kidding. I locked myself in my dorm room, was on my laptop for a year straight, 18 hours a day, seven days a week. When I went out back into the social world, it was so bad.

I had social anxiety. It eventually got to agoraphobia. Couldn't even leave my house. Wow. So I'm glad you mentioned that it's a lonely spot because it really is. So I encourage, you know, people in entrepreneurship to get that network of people around them. Yeah. And that's incredible that you overcame that. I mean, that's exactly right. In a way, you have to, you know, it's about sacrifice and there are things,

you know, that the extent to which people do varies, but you can't have that sort of abundant social life. And so I think it is having the right people in your life and having that line of communication. Also, it becomes unrelatable in ways. And there's nothing wrong with either, but someone that comes home after a nine to five is not going to understand the mental duress of not having that framework yeah you know so having buddies in a group chat or uh you know just a conversation where you can sort of be there for each other and work each

other through that it can be huge yeah did the fear of failure eat at you early on because for me i mean i didn't even want to tell people I grew up with that I was doing this because I was so scared of it. All the time. I think fear of failure, you know, was it was a bigger driver than success itself. It's like, I do not want to fail. Right. And any endeavor like that teaches you a lot because, you know, a lot of your circle or so called buddies or people in your life that you'd think would be there and be supportive, they're not necessarily there. Usually not.

Yeah. Not until you gain some momentum and it's cool. Right. You know, and so that's an eye-opening thing. Very. And you have to be, you have to be ready for that. Yeah. I don't understand the science behind it. It must be something innately in us where we get jealous of our friends and it's like you have to shift your mindset almost, right? How freeing is that?

Like when you realize it's not a zero-sum game. Like when you root on even the people, you know, your competitors, the people in your niche, you know, how can I help you? You're doing amazing. Like it always comes back and there is that built-in uh zero-sum sort of intuition that their win means my loss and that's just it couldn't be further from the truth absolutely i mean it took me a while to shift i think because i grew up in an environment like middle class upper class where it's kind of

egos at play and you know people got jealous all the time. But yeah, once I made that shift, really changed my life. And, you know, the universe rewards you when you connect people together, do good things for people without expecting anything. Yeah, that's exactly it. Yeah, I mean, you guys are in the group chat

I just made of all the previous podcast guests. Most people would charge money for something like that. But I just did it because I love connecting people and bring value to people, you know what I mean? So yeah, I encourage more people to think that way. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing like learning from people and you know Their unique skill sets but also, you know to our previous point Just being there just hanging out just having someone to chat with about something very specific. It's a really cool thing. Yeah So what are you passionate about these days? I know you said you're kind of shifting from YouTube, right? It's not that I'm shifting it, I'm shifting my approach. So, you know, really, you know, I have a team in place and scaling and taking some of that information,

putting it on a podcast. You know, there's four new YouTube channels that have come out in the last two weeks. So it's, yeah, it's sort of an all systems go thing where, uh, you know, I feel like I'm sort of at that point. Um, so yeah, scaling the, the media company has been really huge and really rewarding. Um, enjoyed that started a new apparel company called levels, uh, which has just been a really fun, uh, project so far as well. Um, first drop live inspired drop. And, uh, you know, the message, it ties into a lot of what I've talked about before, where it's like, it's very easy to simply exist, to do what you're supposed to do. And that's not the goal. The goal is not to live, it's to live an inspired life. And so, yeah, there's going to be more social media content tied to that, monthly challenges.

We did something called the Broken Marathon. And basically it's every hour for 24 hours you run a mile. And just putting yourself through these sort of mental stressors that spit you out the other side, a different person. So, yeah, it's been a blast. Every hour run a mile. So you're running 24 miles in a day. Yeah. And the interesting thing is, like, the mile itself is not that brutal, right?

Because you're getting 53, 54 minutes in between. But it's between midnight and 5 a.m. being stiff and stagnant and cold. Your adversary is not what you think it would be. It was a very weird experience. Wow. If you ever do it in Vegas, I'm there. I want to try something like that out.

Yeah. We'll just do that. That'll be fun. All right. Thanks so much for coming on. Eddie, anything you want to close off with? Hey,

thank you for having me. And yeah, feel free to check out the pod, your world within, and I'm on YouTube as well. And yeah, the new, the new launch of levels,

LVLS.shop. Let's go. I'll put it in the description. Thanks for watching, guys, and I'll see you next time.