Julian Dorey Podcast - [VIDEO] - Secret Hollywood Elite Parties, P Diddy, Nature of Evil, Storytelling | Dougie Corrado • 196

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

(***TIMESTAMPS in Description Below) ~ Dougie Corrado is a master storyteller & YouTuber. EPISODE LINKS: - BUY Guest’s Books & Films IN MY AMAZON STORE: https://amzn.to/3RPu952  - Julian Dorey PODCAST MERCH: https://juliandorey.myshopify.com/  - Support our Show on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/JulianDorey  - Join our DISCORD: https://discord.gg/pwWycydc  JULIAN YT CHANNELS: - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Clips YT: https://www.youtube.com/@juliandoreyclips  - SUBSCRIBE to Julian Dorey Daily YT: https://www.youtube.com/@JulianDoreyDaily  - SUBSCRIBE to Best of JDP: https://www.youtube.com/@bestofJDP  DOUGIE LINKS: - INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dougiecorrado/?hl=en  ***TIMESTAMPS*** 0:00 - Zyn Wave; Johnny Drinks on board; Dougie creating stories & going viral 12:00 - Growing up in Chicago; Secret Hollywood Elite Party; TT fiasco 20:07 - Trolls on internet; Storytelling 26:37 - TT Beef; Staircase Story 35:28 - Grand Canyon Treasure Story; Dougie’s YouTube creating routine; Demon Girl 43:28 - Building fan base; Pat Reilly; Previous Content Generation 48:55 - Delayed gratification; Comparison Culture 56:15 - Joey Swoll; Nerfing Problems 1:11:08 - Julian breaks down his top episodes; Simplicity 1:18:27 - Dougie connecting; Forgiveness 1:24:42 - Creepy Secret Hollywood Elite Party Story; The M@sons; Eerie JEP connection 1:35:32 - JEP locations; Photos at JEP’s home 1:39:16 - Weird back tats on prominent person 1:44:27 - The Grove; Fools Gold Story; Anxiety 1:51:12 - Are we bad people? Fear of Communism 2:03:28 - North Korea 2:12:31 - Method Acting; Julian almost became an actor 2:23:11 - Mr Ballen; P Diddy Allegations & lawsuit 2:33:43 - Dougie’s next steps CREDITS: - Hosted & Produced by Julian D. Dorey - Intro & Episode Edited by Alessi Allaman ~ Get $150 Off The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress / Mattress Cover (USING CODE: “JULIANDOREY”): https://eight-sleep.ioym.net/trendifier Julian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey ~ Music via Artlist.io ~ Julian Dorey Podcast Episode 196 - Dougie Corrado Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up guys, if you're on Spotify right now, please follow the show so that you don't miss any future episodes and leave a 5 star review. Thank you. I'm 19 and there was people in and out constantly in this commune and my roommates would change week by week. I went home for Christmas and I came home. I came back and apparently there was this girl here that this happened. And I started talking to my friend and he's like, bro, she's been acting crazy. She's standing in the middle of the yard. I'm standing on one foot, squeezing her fist, like white knuckle in it, acting wild and like hair in front of her face, a little Asian girl, freaky situation, right? She's harassing everybody this is real that's real i want to start hopping on the zin wave you're on the zin wave huh i'm not on the zin wave i

never had in my life no no i'm surprised man i I'm surprised, man. I never did dip in my life. I never did. I'm like, that shit looks amazing. I'm not doing that. Yeah, you're not. I'll be doing it all day. Because you're a coffee fiend. I figured you'd be into this.

I'm not a coffee fiend. Honestly, I'll have some on the desk when I'm recording, and then sometimes I'll have a midday when I'm working, but I water down my coffee now. Why? Yeah, because I don't really like i don't like having the idea of like having to rely on caffeine so there was a point last spring where actually for the first time i felt like i was like habitually going and making like a strong coffee like every day at like two o'clock and i was like there's no way like coffee's good for you but like not when

you're all the time on it. That's kind of my thought. So you're not, you don't have a crush with like anything really. I try not to. Yeah. I try not to. I mean, you don't need it, bro. You have your like your crazy photographic memory.

I mean, this guy has a brain like nobody else. It's fucking, he knows the episode number of what we, our first, when I was on his podcast. Oh yeah. It was about three years ago. He knows that. Yeah. I'll give you the timestamp. It's not even a joke, dude. It's insane. Yeah. But actually right before we begin, cause we have the Dougie Corrado in here. Welcome to New Jersey, by the way. Appreciate it. It's very fun to be here. I love it. I love it here.

Um, you know what? That's the first person to say that in a while. I appreciate it. I was losing, I was losing some pride in Jersey. This area is beautiful is beautiful like i i love it a lot record this yeah i thought we were going i thought you did a slow roll time we are recording that's funny but yeah hoboken's like a fun little town there's only like 60 000 people here the view of manhattan you get to see all the prettiness without all the gross it's fantastic right right but your channel is fucking awesome we're going to talk about that today. You're like, what do you call yourself? The story boy?

They call me story boy. Chop Chop Story Boy. Love that. So we're going to go through like your life is kind of interesting too. Like you've done some wild shit. But before we begin, I got to shout out. You probably heard at the beginning. We have a little co-host today.

A man, Johnny Drinks, a.k.a. John Rondy. What's up, everybody? I'm going to take a back seat though today. I'm just spectating. I'm going to chime in when I feel necessary, but it's your guy's show. I appreciate that. Well, John's got a great TikTok and YouTube

that we were looking at before, but I do got to say this, because you understand, and obviously John understands too, but when you start content, you're starting on zero. You start with nothing. You're trying to get somewhere.

So I was jerking myself off for seven months before I had anyone listening to this thing. And about four months in, a friend of mine connected me with John who had already blown up online and he had never known me before. Drove down two and a half hours to South Jersey in my parents' house,

sat there for three and a half hours on camera, another four hours off camera. That was the longest day. That was about eight hours. You're right, dude. I didn't even know you. I don't know what made me even do it i mean i guess you were the homie and or who who connected us uh it was mitch was no no no it was it was fen you but you knew mitch right and i was like yeah of course come by it was a an eight hour day because of production or because you guys liked each other no we're just we're shooting shit yeah but i want

to say that because you know everyone has to have people, we were just shooting shit. But I want to say that because, you know, everyone has to have people who help them along the way and, you know, take a shot and stuff. And you were one of the many people to do that. But as a creator, like, you know, you're the biggest creator we had on forever, like even maybe to this day in some ways. I appreciate that.

I really appreciate that, bro. And now we live like a half a mile apart here. You can do stuff like this. It's nice and easy to be in the neighborhood. Absolutely, man. But Dougie. Yeah. Tell people what your channel is apart here. So new stuff like this. Nice and easy to be in the neighborhood. But Dougie. Yeah. Tell people what your channel is.

Okay. Because it's so unique. Like when Alessi showed it to me, I'm like, what the fuck is this? And then we started watching it and I'm sitting there like. It keeps you, right? Yes. Okay. So how do I explain it?

I make it seem real. And you can't tell which stories are real and which stories aren't. Because some of them are real and some of them aren't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions

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And then I get to one that seems a little bit paranormal and attention and like eye contact and i'm scaring the people and then i get to one that seems a little bit paranoid like paranormal or like something like oh on this trip something happened in the woods that seemed like a cryptid or something along those lines and i tell them the exact same manner so they can't tell and then the descriptions i put this is a first-hand encounter when me and my friend sam who was an army ranger who's just this tactical minded guy and who's a real friend of mine so i just plug my real friends into these stories whoa and then now we're in michigan and we touched a staircase and now like a girl got brought into the woods by some dude without a face and you know i'm saying like it just gets a little bit weird where does this come from

like what what is it in you that pulls out stories like that when they're not real i i think it came from growing up in Chicago where everything is dangerous everywhere. So you were going over every scenario in your head and like, all right, if that guy presses me, if he does this, I'm going to do this. I'm going to figure this out. And then you just kind of like constantly preparing for days or preparing for commutes. I'm going to the loop. This might happen. I'm worried about this. I'm on the train. I'm looking around. This guy's doing this. And you start making these scenarios in your head over and over again all day so it's like paranormal like paranoia and then you just get used to like it then it's just like how my mind

operates does that make sense yeah do you have people in the comment section like hopping on like let's say it's a fake story yeah do you have somebody being like yeah i heard this like i was yes you do yes and they're just fucking they go this is fact you could see it in his eyes that's insane i love when people like try to pick Yes. And they're just fucking with you. They go, this is fact. You could see it in his eyes that it's true. I love when people like try to pick things apart and they're so wrong. And you're like, yeah, you got this one. Yeah. That was good. Yeah.

That's every day. Every day. The other thing you do is like your tone is so perfect because you're scripting these things out and you read it fast, but you're like, you're doing it like you'll memorize a line and then say it. But your tone is like, and I always think blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I always think about like when I've done voiceovers, it's hard when you have to then go cut in something because your tone changed. You know what I'm talking about.

Exactly. But you keep it where it's like somehow it has the perfect like iambic pentameter in a way. The way we do that is I'll either write or I have my girl write and I lay on the floor. You got your girl in studio today, by the way. Yes, Jess. She's 50% of this. She deserves just as much credit as I do. That's awesome.

I lay on the floor and she types and I speak in my own voice. So she writes how I talk. And then she says the line, then I say the line so that I'm able to actually say it as if I'm saying it. That's genius. Does that make sense? So I'm not like writing a novel.

He said this and then we went here and the look on his face was delicate and sensitive. Right. No, it's like this guy looked weird as shit. Right. And then she'll type that out and say it back to you. Yeah. Yeah.

That's such a misconception too. Like if you read great authors sometimes, I'll give you an example. If you read like the book, The Da Vinci Code, right? If you've seen the movie before, obviously there's like in your head you're picturing tom hanks robert langton playing them and you see how they said the things in the movie yeah but then you read the book which is an award-winning book and fucking phenomenal by dan brown and the one thing is the dialogue is not real like once you're picturing them saying it out loud it's very robotic and sometimes it's very robotic and like not how people would talk because when you're just sitting there typing without actually talking it out to yourself, you tend to – exactly like you said.

You tend to put things in a different word form. Yeah. People will tell me to like put out a book, like do something like this. We'll buy a hardcover. And I'm like that's like buying a text message from me. You know what I'm saying? It's literally just how I talk okay you're saying it's like completely the same that I've never I mean I've never done this so I don't know yeah it's a good way because I I think of almost like

when parents write up texts it's like who are that's not you yeah it's formal yeah and they try to become something they're not like you're doing the opposite yeah and that's why your your stories feel so organic like I am just listening you tell a five-minute story off the top of your head. And it's like the way I like to think about it is, you know, sometimes you text people like your parents and there's punctuation and capitalization and all this, but I write in lowercase with no punctuations. You know, the people in text that just have the lowercase and you're like, oh, that kind of looks cool. How'd you do that? I don't even know how to change it on my phone, but whenever somebody

does lowercase, I'm like, how'd you change that setting? That's how we write. It's all lowercase. Yeah. Oh, that's so smart, man. Yeah. And it all came from stories. And he told me that you guys realized stories is what was working. Yeah. That was when I was making the clips in, well, John, you were there when I was first doing them in February, 2021. As I start, I had one go viral in April 2021. It was good. It felt, it didn't feel like amazing. I thought it would feel amazing. I was like, okay, well, we got to make the next one. But that's, yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, exactly. I've never really felt anything when they go viral. But then I would see that I hit some clips, like I'd make clips with the same quality. This is like now April, May, June into July clips. I'd make clips with the same quality. This is now April, May, June, into July 2021.

I'd make clips of all the same quality, but some would do half watch time, and the other would do 100% and go viral. I'm like, what is this? Then it hit me. I put out three clips successively. Is that a word? Yeah.

I understand. Whatever it is. Talk a little. i put out three clips at the end of july one with my friend ashton larold and then one two with my guy jim diorio and ashton told a visual story that went very viral it wasn't so much a story as it was he was creating visuals that made it seem narrative right so he was talking about his having trouble with suicide and he talked about how i didn't want to die but i didn't want to be alive it's almost like you're in a car and you're driving

but it's like and you have anxiety depression all these things back there you're controlling the wheel though not them so people were picturing this and i'm like whoa and then with jim he's telling a story about september 15 2001 when he did a takedown of an Al-Qaeda cell in Jersey. Right? And so he's like, so we go to the door. And I was like, oh. So I see this and I'm like, oh, my God. I had had a guy in about a month before, John Bork, who was this Emmy-winning sportscaster in Philly.

And in the middle of the conversation, we were just getting lit on camera. So it was like whatever. But in the middle of the conversation, I said to him, what was your favorite part about your career? And he said like very seriously. He goes, telling people's stories. I'm a storyteller. That's what I want. I want to know what makes people tick and how they got there.

And I thought about that. And then I put these clips together and I was like stories. And then I went back to every clip that had gone viral and if it wasn't a story it painted a perfect visual that you could make a narrative so then i started working in all the b-roll and stuff like that and that was kind of it so yeah when we were looking at this we're like all right this guy gets it steve jobs said storyteller runs the world yeah um so when we first started going viral i i was a little embarrassed when i started to have to make up make ones up and i felt a little bit weird about it because i was

like all the other ones i was like problem like this is oh they think i'm cool they think the shit me and my friends did was cool you know it made me feel a little bit more unique right and i was oh i guess i had an interesting upbringing i guess my perspective on things is interesting but once they became fake i started to get a little bit insecure about it because you know like i told you like i i was working at jiu-jitsu schools around a bunch of combat sports guys it's a different vibe you know yeah and you know i'm like oh i'm making up stories it comes off a little bit weird but then my friend meek who i would make mail no uh no no who's your friend um uh mikhail latif he actually fights for one who I would think- Meek Mill? No. I was going to say that. I wasn't waiting. No, no.

Who's your friend? Mikhail Latif. He actually fights for one championship. He fought in Singapore like a few weeks ago. But he's one of the most interesting men I've ever met. He's a world traveler. He's a professional fighter. He played Kabaddi in India.

He's just a very respectful man that lives at a very high level. I really respect the shit out of this guy. And he said to me, storytellers were respected throughout every generation. You should be proud of what you do. And I was like, it changed everything for me. And now the way we approach writing, I have so much more pride behind it. Because I'm like, oh, this is something I should be proud of,

not something that I should be a little insecure about because I'm making shit up. Who's your influences? Like when you were growing up, were you a reader? Did you like watching documentaries or movies? I was an athlete my whole life. Only. Only?

Only. Like I enjoy, obviously like I enjoyed cartoons. I've taught Last Airbender, play video games, just regular stuff. But the area that I grew up in was very blue collar. Just a lot of firemen, cops workers and all their kids so then our neighborhood was wild like it was it was a it was a good neighborhood like like no crime nothing like that but the level of intensity of like the rivalries from high schools and stuff like that there was three high schools in my area and all of the kids that we all grew up together,

we all went to different high schools. And then rivalry started. And we'd meet up and have massive group fights in the parks. Group fights? What does that look like? Massive. I'm talking build it up on Facebook. This kid versus this kid.

That's awesome. I swear, bro. And we knew who the tough kids were. And it was like, okay, we have this kid. He's a state wrestler but this kid's the running back for this high school it's gonna be a good matchup let's build it up yo you guys had a fight club yeah and there would be no mismatches it was like you can't fight a guy like way lower really yeah you guys had rules it was that's what i'm saying it was respectable

it wasn't there was no jumping in there was nothing like that but we were but we were able to wrestle because like we respected wrestling in our community um i wrestled one year but then i switched to jiu jitsu because they tried to make me cut weight, but I wanted to play football, so I didn't want to cut weight. Gotcha. So when you're fighting, it's all go, though. You can use all limbs. We all loved the UFC.

Right. So we all knew. So if you tapped out, that's it? Fight's over? Respect. Really? That's interesting. There wasn't that many submissions because there was a lot of wrestlers.

And obviously, we were younger. It was like early high school. We all became like... Once that phase passed, all friends. Again. we're like that was sick right that was like it was just all camaraderie it's just that's what you do there yeah um so it's just sports and then obviously being around hordes of other guys so you just get good at communicating like performing in front of 15 dudes and just like talking and building personality and then you know jujitsu gyms i ran i was like to do that they do that. Like when you walk in, I'm like, what's up? I'm there every day. Yeah. So I'm

dealing with a hundred men and how to like create a community and talk to men and build an environment and teach them how this is how we act here. And then I perform them. I perform for them pretty much when they come in. I'm putting, I'm putting the stuff, whatever we're watching on the TV, I'm introducing this guy to this guy. These are two new members. I have to make them feel comfortable. You know what I'm saying? So I'm introducing this guy to this guy. These are two new members. I have to make them feel comfortable. You know what I'm saying? Yes, I do. So I just got good at communicating with people.

Got it. Yeah, it's almost like your shit was a stage ahead of time in a way. Yeah, I did some sales too. You did? Yeah, here and there. After high school, I didn't go D1 in any sports. So I was like, I'm good. I don't want to go play football.

I'm not going to go play football in I'm good. I don't want to go play football. I'm not going to go play football in a cornfield. I don't care. You know? So I saved up $2,000 at Steak and Shake and I moved across, I moved to California and I just lived in, lived in communes and hostels for two years right after high school. Oh, you know what you did, John, did you see this video? The party I wish I never went to or whatever no did i show you that one all right you did this video recently where i remember society yeah you put a picture of the steak shack or what was it shake shack in there steak and shake that's a real pick yeah that's me working at steak and shake so i put pieces that are true in every story yeah every

place i referenced in that story every place i referenced i had been there and i lived there and then there's other did you see the demon girl one in the commune that happened that happened that was a synopsis bro okay but wait the party in la didn't hell no you were fooled bro right yeah i wanted that one to be real. Yeah no no no. We're going to talk about it still. Yeah and I tied in things that were relevant in that time. Like that was the time of the vloggers. And I knew where they all lived because I lived in LA at the time.

So you didn't live at 1600 Vine? No. God damn it I told like six people. This can't be 1600 Vine. No he's commenting. This is real I know it's real. No that's perfect. Is this real?

That's crazy. I didn't live there. I lived in Glendale and Reseda and a little bit of time in Studio City and then a little bit of time in OC and I traveled a lot to San Francisco and San Diego. Okay, so you did live out there, though. Yeah, for two years. Two and a half. What were you trying to do out there again? I was traveling California

going from different jiu-jitsu gym for two and a half years and I was just training and I would work on a production set for like one week a month because uh my aunt's my aunt is a writer she actually was a writer on sons of anarchy she's oh great yeah yeah she's really great uh her name's regina she's the best um but uh she was out there she had a little production company and then my uncle joe had a little commercial production company so i'd go be a grip i just go move heavy shit for a week and they would would pay me like $3,000. What? And my rent was $300 and I had a $120 car bill. So I just had freedom. What year is this? 2015, 16, a little bit 17. Okay. Yeah. Wow. So you were,

you were a mover and shaker from a young age. Like there's some people that it's just, they can't, and this is a good thing. I think most of the time they can't sit still. They need new adventure. They need new action. It seems like you're that guy. Yes, 100%. I can't think about things for more than 10 seconds. I'm a goldfish.

I tell her, I'm like, if I forget, I'm like, if I forget, I'm not doing it to like hurt you. I forgot because I forgot. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just moving on to the next thing. All the stories, like I always talk about it. It's like people are like, oh, how'd you come up with this? What's your process? I'm like, start, finish, stories, like I always talk about it. It's like people are like, oh, how'd you come up with this? What's your process? I'm like, start, finish, publish, repeat.

I do one draft. I record it. I edit it. I never think about it again. That's it. I just move on. I was just going to say, like, I think short memory is pretty important in your space and our space, you know, because win or loss, you can't harp on it because now you're going

to, if it's a big win, you're like, I'm good. I don't have to make content for a week now. Yeah. And like, no, you do. You make content the next day. And if it's a bad one, you get in your own head. I don't know what to do now. Did I lose my touch?

People forgot about me. That's the biggest thing right now. Like the ADHD mind of just like, you posted yesterday. Who cares? Today's a new day. That's TikTok. And we stopped like, and I felt that pressure. Yeah, dude.

It's fucking terrible. And like, you know, you get the comments. If one video doesn't do well, there's the really hateful person. Like, bro, you fell off after this story. And I'm like, bitch, I jumped ship. I'm like, bitch, I jumped ship. I went to YouTube. I'm not even trying on TikTok anymore.

I haven't put effort into TikTok since August. I don't even care. I don't care. I'm just going to build on YouTube. We're really the same. It really happened that way. We're kind of going back now because they have the new rewards program. You saw that?

They're out of going back now because they have the new rewards program. You saw that? Yeah. They're out of creativity program beta. Now they're in creative rewards program. And that involves the long form, right? Long form. And that was a beautiful thing

because we were already doing long form. You got to look at that. Write that down. Add it to the list of fucking 40,000 things we do. I'm going to send you. I did off camera.

Anyway. Okay. But – Hey, guys. If you have a second, please be sure to share this episode around on social media and with your friends, whether it's Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. It doesn't matter. It's all a huge help. It gets new eyeballs on the show, and it allows us to grow and survive.

So thank you to all of you who have already been doing that and thank you to all of you who are going to do so now yeah wait like now we're just doing youtube and youtube sticks around they're like i can't wait for the next one they buy in you know and they see how much hard like i feel like the youtube community knows how much effort goes into each video when tiktok's just like you're not cool anymore you fell off i'm like i don't leave me alone you know you're like shut up you're stupid though yeah john's a prototypical tiktoker yeah well yeah but you followed like this like you hear you hear these comments and like you you find yourself commenting back and you're like what am i doing yes answering a 12 year old just said wow sick views dude

i'll beat your ass i'll fight you right now do i reply to comments with videos that like the talking to them oh you'll do that on tiktok but they like that yeah you know uh it really bumps views if i reply to somebody who said something mean and i kind of to the crowd that likes me i'm like it's crazy that i put this much effort to make quality content for you and you don't appreciate it and everybody's like yeah you're a piece of shit i'm like take that yeah you get a wave of mean comments you know yeah you see how it feels now yeah most people they're just behind the keyboard like there was there was a situation we had in the fall me and my buddy danny jones

where we're dealing with some fallout from something with someone who's just kind of an asshole and about a weekend he was like dude i just realized something this person is a youtube commenter in real life and we just happen to see them yeah and i'm like holy shit because then i thought about the behaviors i'm like wow it's like shocking when you meet that but the difference is at least that guy was a youtube commenter to your face too you gotta respect that my face i'll respect that i respect that for sure a lot of people you know they're just like fuck you die bye yeah and that's it yeah that's all it is it's fun though it's fun we see him i was just reading him on the way here you got but you have to see them from that from that vantage yes yeah because i forget uh alex hormosi was talking about like if i told you

something that you knew was true about yourself and I exposed that, that's when you get very sensitive. Yeah. Like he was like, if you called me short, it wouldn't even bother me because I'm not short. Yeah. So he's like, if you have an insecurity,

that's the only way somebody can get at you. So you read it from a vantage point of like, I'm making content, have a good time. If you tell me that my character in this video was a dickhead or whatever so be it it doesn't hurt me personally i i tend to write in a way that uh i kind of put myself as the bad guy sometimes or i kind of put myself as the ignorant character at sometimes what do you mean like something will happen and like i'll have this other character here and uh shout out my

friend sam i'm not gonna say his last name he he probably doesn't want me to. But he is a really cool Army Ranger guy. And he is just very tactical. He spent a lot of time overseas. And when I think of somebody who I would like to be in a situation with, I think of him. Right? And I know he would do the right thing. But I need to tee up his moment of doing the right thing by me being ignorant, immature asshole. Oh, shit.

Does that make sense? Yes. So like this happened and I go, and my first thing is to tell this person to get away from me. But then Sam goes, hey, she might be in trouble. We need to figure this out. You know, we need to gather information about this to do this. So it pushes the narrative forward that doesn't put me on the pedestal every time.

Because if you do that, you just sound full of yourself. Like, yeah, I'm the hero of every story. That's right. I put myself as like the secondary character that's observing and they're coming with me you're toby mcguire and gatsby never seen it but yes you never see okay all right yeah uh that way this way there we go but yes right there too exactly that's correct have you guys seen masters of the air yet? Masters of the Air? It's on Apple TV.

No. It's got Austin Butler. No. What's going on in that? Well, they're a bomb squad in World War II. Oh, I'm in. It's sweet. I'm in. It's sweet.

That's sick. But the narration is done by the navigator of the planes. It's not done by the – like it follows the pilots. That's right. They're the heroes. The pilots are the heroes, right? But the person that's telling the story is the It follows the pilots. That's right. They're the heroes the pilots are the heroes, right? But the person that's telling the story is the navigator that survived. That's right. Yeah, I'm the navigator I'm bringing them through the story through my point of view watching the heroes

But that's that's also that makes sense though because that's what the best storytellers are They usually are the people who are there to document what's happening, right? They're not the people actually like saving the world when they do it and it's very important though to have that because then then you actually get that perspective and everything but that's i i always love getting into the process of how people bring these things to life it's it is surprising to me that you're like when i look at a video that's an hour 20 minutes long with i mean you you speak fast too which is. So like you're getting a lot of words in there per minute. I'm like, but this guy is just doing draft, rinse, repeat? Yep. Even for those long ones?

Everything. We don't think about it again. We come up with a concept. We write the bullet points. We do one draft and we record and I send it. That's it. I move on. Wow.

I spend five, ten minutes on the thumbnail. That's it. And then out. Move on. Start writing. That's it. I was like. Wow. I spent five, I spent 10 minutes, five, 10 minutes on the thumbnail. That's it. And then out, move on, start writing. That's it. I was like, we don't have that experience.

How long was I spending on those thumbnails last night? But, but that's different. But the TikToks that's, so as far as like the distribution of it is like the, the editing side of it, very meticulous. Like we're not, this isn't by accident.

You know what I'm saying? Like, how so? What do you mean? Well, for the first 20, well, um, the editing side of it, very meticulous. Like we're not, this isn't by accident. You know what I'm saying? Like, uh, so what do you mean? Well, for the first 20, well, no, probably 30 videos at all. Like 5 million plus videos. The first 30, I edited them myself. They took me six hours for a four minute video each one. Yeah, I believe that. So that part, like the style that was built and the understanding of the socials and things of that nature and how to, what fat to cut. Cause initially I was telling them on a podcast, on a podcast i would i would be like here's a concept and i would have my friends come in shout out abdul and adam they'd come in and uh i would be like hey we're gonna tell current events for 40 minutes but we have to do one story and i would be like hey here's the story right and i would tell it to my friends so that's where the nat like the natural storytelling came from because

people liked the way i would tell it to somebody and then i'd but i would but, but there'd be so much fat in there. So I would have to go in, there'd be a 15 minute video and I had to cut 15 minutes into four. So it's 10 minutes of fat of me talking. And sometimes I repeat myself. Sometimes they, they talk over me. Sometimes they laugh over me and I have to repeat it. So you got to go cut that out. Exactly. So now it's a bit easier. We're able to make much longer ones because nobody's talking over me. Yeah. Does that make sense? And I don't repeat it. So, um, it's a bit easier we're able to make much longer ones because nobody's talking over me yeah does that make sense and i don't repeat it so um it's good training though to have to do that because it makes you have to be meticulous like i don't know if you remember this john but for some reason when i was on tiktok before youtube was starting to rip in 2021 tiktok would never send my clips if they were over 29 seconds and 20 frames really ever so i had to

learn how to edit and they couldn't be too short because you know then it's like whatever i had to learn how to edit between 27 and a half and so 27 12 24 and then 29 i think 16 was the cutoff yeah and i hated it but then when YouTube was like yo if it's good we're gonna send it once that happened now it made editing 45 seconds like oh I gotta get something from five minutes to 45 seconds that shit's easy nothing you know nothing yeah yeah we would build the hooks like the hooks would take the longest for sure because how do you how do you find a hook questions questions and moments right so uh was, I probably still know the hook to the first stairs video.

When I touched it, like I felt something when I touched it and then Sam looked at me like he was terrified. And then I knew, then it was like, I knew it happened the second I touched it. Second you touch what? Right? So it's like, and Sam looked at me terrified. Why was he terrified?

Emotion. And then setting. Me and my friend Sam went on a hike in Michigan. And we went and did this. And as we're walking, we see a staircase in the clearing. And the staircase was a bit weird. It was clean. It was in the middle of the woods.

But it was white and had blue carpet. And there wasn't a bug on it. You know what I'm saying? So then it's like, why is the staircase here? Puts you there. So we find questions that need to be answered that we would go every three seconds, there needs to be a reason for the next three seconds.

That's a really good way of putting it. Because again, if you have a good enough hook, that video can be so fucking long because I'm staying to make sure I find out the answer to that question. Yeah, we had like 120% retention on the stairs video that was four and a half minutes long. 120%. Yeah. They would rewatch it. How many views? On a four and a half. That one is probably over seven, 7 million. But then it's the second video is probably

at like 9 million on TikTok. Right. And then we literally from part one to part 30, averaging 5 million views, I would post it at 9 PM and we'd wake up. We'd wake up and it would be at a million by the time we'd wake up and we'd wake up, we'd open the phone right away. Like, it's at a million so it's still going good. And then it actually died down

when TikTok throttled my RPM and they didn't let me make any more money past a certain amount that month. Oh, you were doing too good. You were beating the house. I was doing way too good. Wait, they did what?

I want to do well on TikTok so I don't want to say it i mean i don't know if anyone's watching okay but this is the thing is the second i said it they throttled my views and they throttled my rpm all right let's talk good about tiktok i'm very excited for this new program that you have coming and i'm up i'm i want to be a creator on your platform you just need to incentivize me properly. Little side note, they are really serious about that though. I went to their HQ in New York. Between client meetings, managing your business, and everyday tasks, who has time to worry about website hosting? With Kinsta's managed WordPress hosting, you don't have to. They handle the

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Freaking October, for like eight hours one day, they invited a bunch of random creators, and they were really like can you guys make long form video can you make a long form video so we so somebody from tiktok reached out to you then or did you reach out to them yeah i haven't heard from anybody anywhere you guys are the first creators i've met i had never heard shit from anyone either but they reached out like to my agent at the agency so it wasn't even like to me so i almost think it was like random like an

accent because i can't even get i've never been monetized on tiktok they won't even accept my id so i feel you when it comes to like they don't even help you with that i was sitting in there like you guys gonna monetize me they're like oh yeah no problem just start making like i'm not leaving until you go i was like it's just marketing whatever you know we'll just we'll we'll get the views. So once we got to part 12, over 5 million views, every single part, they throttled my RPM, which already should have been $1. That's what they said, right?

Tell people what RPM is who don't know. Oh, RPM is how much you get paid per 1,000 views. So YouTube is, in some cases, when you have longer form content, sometimes it could be $12 to $20. Ours is whatever. TikTok be $12 to $20, right? Ours is whatever. TikTok is $1.20. He goes $12 to, you know, those big time creators, they make it $20.

I don't know who that is. If they're an hour plus. Oh, really? Yes, that does make a huge difference. Huge difference because there's more space, right? But TikTok is like the most you could get is like a dollar. Right? We start off because I was already doing well with one minute plus videos

when the program came out. Right? And when was that? Like a year ago? August. Yeah. It was August. Or September.

Yeah. July. Less than a year. Whatever. Mine was already at 70 cents. And I was like, oh, okay. Well, it wasn't what they advertised,

but it's good enough. Right? It's cool. We're doing really well. So that'll'll be fine and then once it got to the 12th i was getting four cents what four cents you went down 96 yes they stopped they stopped paying me i got a video with five million views that was four minutes long and they paid me 16 fucking communist god damn it This is what I did. Cause I like, I just get angry.

And I like, she knew I was doing the wrong thing, but she was like, I was very upset. And I start taking screenshots of my creator dashboard. And I'm literally just doing green screen videos and I'm showing them, hey guys, this is how many views I got. This is how many were qualified. This is how much they paid me.

I'm begging you to watch on YouTube. And after that, we didn't get over a million views on that story anymore. They're like, watch this motherfucker. Yeah, check this out. Cool down. The other thing you're saying here is like, what did you say? Part 30 or something like that? I used to get shit on for doing part two.

How the fuck do you get away with 30? That is insane, dude. Because I would communicate. Every single night right after, I would call, what would I call it? What would I call it? Just like, I have to go talk to them. I said like, we would post the video at 9 PM right after I finished editing. And we had a second room in the studio. Um, the studio that I was, uh, yeah, anyway, um, in the second room and I would go in the first few

comments, I would reply to like eight of them and I would do a full video reply and I would just nurture it. And I'd be like, guys, I'm working so hard for you. Cause I were, we were doing 12 hour days. So that would work for all the complainers about part 12 And I'd be like, guys, I'm working so hard for you because we were, we were doing 12 hour days. So that would work for all the complainers about part two and part 12. I'd be like, guys, I'm working as hard as I can. I don't have any help. I'm recording them. I'm editing them.

I promise I'll get the next part out tomorrow. Just do this. And then I would do a green screen and I would take a screenshot of my profile. Feel free to steal this. You circle what you want them to do. So you go, hey, if you want to watch on YouTube and you circle the Instagram button,

just click this and then circle the YouTube button and click this and go support me over here. And we got 100,000 people from TikTok to YouTube. Wait, back that up. John's over here, right? Yo, bro, they hated that though. TikTok hated that. Of course.

So I wouldn't say YouTube. I'd say, hey, if you guys really want to support me, just go to my profile, click. And I would go like YouTube. I'd say, hey, if you guys really want to support me, just go to my profile. And I would go like this. Click this, then click this. And then you'll find yourself here where I have a plethora of stories that you will absolutely love.

This is an actual post or a story on TikTok? A post. You post this? Post. I would do like eight every night and I would just talk to them. Oh, so you're posting a shit ton. Yeah, I would post one video,

but the first video was four minutes. So I'm not just posting like a little glimpse. I'm posting a four minute. Like this is a part that we, we got to a really good climax at whatever part of the story we were on. And then I would leave it on a cliffhanger. So they're like, Oh,

come on, give me the next one. I'd be like, the next one's tomorrow. So we took that formula that like Netflix or like the old school used, like, Hey, we're every Friday,

uh, an episode drops. I did it. I just minimized it onto an every night basis so four minutes you're staying in front of them all the time yes and i'm just replying to comments all the time right so you'd be posting these stories once a week every night every night these stories four minutes every night gotcha and then i would reply to like eight to ten throughout the day no i do it right after the first the first people that commented would get it. So it incentivizes that first hour. You know what I'm saying? Smart. Yeah. And then the next morning, maybe I would do like a controversial one where somebody would say something mean and I would go, I'm back at the studio. I slept six hours and I'm out here

grinding. And you're talking to me like that. So you kind of build a little controversy around it too, where like support happens, you know? So how are the views on the reply story of the reply videos i got 10.4 mil on one just you saying hey guys check this video uh that one was when the series uh thing just came out where they they so they incentive you guys know this they incentivize you using their features yeah so when tiktok shop came out i already had merch ready yeah and then i sold out an entire drop of merch in three days yeah and just because they just we but i swear to you we were the first people to put the tiktok shop thing at the bottom because i spent six hours learning how to connect the merch store to the tiktok shop right through skill skill q yeah such a pain in the ass um is that window

high enough for me to kill myself break your legs yeah you'd be fine though and then we we had a bunch of podcasts already done and my friend sam he did a podcast with me before where he was searching for forest fenced treasure which is like forest fenced treasure it was this english i got you um it was this philanthropist yeah that's right there we go um who he was just like really rich and he had a bunch of native american antiques and he made this little chest and he put millions of dollars worth of stuff in this chest and he wrote a book with a riddle in it and he said in the if you solve the riddle you will be able to find this chest right and he just put it out to the public and because he thought he was dying of terminal

cancer he survived but then it became a big media storm because people were going to search in national parks for this i saw that really cool story. And my friend, Sam went to look for it while he was in college, uh, college at Boulder, Colorado. Amazing story. He almost died. He almost, he fell into like a rapid, it was this crazy story. And I had him on like a year earlier and I just had this podcast in the bank. So then the series thing came out where you could put a paywall behind a video. So I have this story where me and Sam are in the woods and this shit is happening. And if you guys want to put a face to behind a video. So I have this story where me and Sam are in the woods and this shit is happening.

And if you guys want to put a face to the name, I actually have a podcast from a year ago that YouTube took down because it was too graphic. But you guys could pay $1.99 for it to support me and put a face to the name. And that video got 10 million views because series just came out. Go ahead, tell us.

No. That's awesome, man. Where do you get the time for all this psychotic that's all you do that's all i do she gets all i think about all we talk about it's all this all the time we we work out and we do this that's all we do what does the day look like for you we wake up we drink what time oh no we sleep till we wake up so that's a rule that i have when i go to sleep i do not i don't we try not to set alarms it's a little different this week but we just don't set alarm when we wake up i feel fresh and i could go for the 12 hours straight but if i try to do like a 6 a.m regimen whatever like we don't do that interesting yeah okay um i just need to feel

rested your boy needs to sleep 100 yeah you're one of those people you're born i i have a phrase you're born with the cocaine in your veins. Yeah. You don't need that shit. Yeah. That's just there. But that's interesting. I love this shit.

That's how you start. Yeah. I love this shit. And it's fun. And I just like working out and this gives us the freedom to work out. And then I enjoy what I'm doing. Right. So it doesn't bother me.

It's like first thing we do, we just work out. We have a gym in the basement now. Oh, you do a home workout with it. Yeah. Yeah. Luckily we were, because when we started, I lived with my parents, right? And then I met her. She moved in with my parents.

All three of us. Yeah. Yeah, look at that. Yeah. And she moved in. She moved in with her dog, too. And it was just this whole. That's so funny.

That's laying down. I see what you did there. She was a smart lady over there. I made her, actually. Because everything started going well when I met her, right? Because it's direction. I'm not joking. First person to believe in me, right? Because it's direction. I'm not joking. First person to believe in me, right?

So I was just throwing stuff at the wall, all this stuff going on. And I found myself trying to, because I figured out the story thing. So I was trying to have people on similar to what you do. Tell their story and I'll clip it. Because I didn't feel, promoting myself kind of felt gross. It does feel gross. Right? And then I met her and she goes, you, you a good stories do you and then the first one that she was

like this story was good clip it and do it we're just hanging out my studio we made it got 10 at 10.6 million when was that a few months before the stairs so maybe June last year yeah was that your that wasn't your first video though the first video that went really but so the first video that I I felt like went viral got 1.1 million. I was like, I'm the shit. Which platform? But it was my-

1.1 million. Rookie numbers. But it was my friend Hamza telling a crazy story. So it was my boy telling a story, but then that's when I realized the story thing. And then I reached out to the entire public on TikTok of 1.1 million viewers that I had at the time and 16,000 followers.

If you guys have a crazy story, DM me i'm gonna send you a zoom link and then i'm gonna have you in zoom and i'm gonna give everybody the platforms the pockets people sourcing crowdsourcing and i had a ton of kids call in for this one thing i did on a friday and we had like 30 kids in the lobby obviously they kind of started dripping out because i was like hey you got there's a queue you know everybody has like 10 minutes people start dropping out because I was like, hey, there's a queue. Everybody has like 10 minutes. People started dropping out, but we got like eight kids over the country to call in on Zoom and I was clipping their stories. And I was just doing that

because I knew the story thing was a big thing. And that did okay. But the second time I tried to do it, the hype wasn't the same, right? And then I was like, oh, well, that was my wave. I fell off, I'm done, right? That was it. That's it for me.

And then we met, we started seeing each other. And then I just randomly told a story on a pod about this time i lived in a commune in recita california and this girl started acting like a demon right and she started acting crazy you know and it was it was good and i just told it from a funny it was actually more comedy what was that story um let's go through that one so i lived in this wild place if uh in recita california where like 16 people live there and it if you look at it from the outside it's just a gate and it looks like damn near a trailer park in there but rent was 350 right and uh i was like i don't want to pay rent there's a bed there cool i'm 19 and there

was people in and out constantly in this commune and my roommates would change week by week and one of them i went on on, I went home for Christmas and I came home, I came back. And apparently there was this girl here that this happened. And I started talking to my friend and he's like, bro, she's been acting crazy. Where she's standing in the middle of the yard, I'm standing on one foot, squeezing her fist,

like white knuckle in it, acting wild. And like hair in front of her face, a little Asian girl. Freaky situation, right? She's harassing everybody. This is real though. That's real. That's real. That's real. We extended that story.

So like that concept went viral. Creative license. Yeah. Yeah. Embellishment a little bit. Yeah. So that initially that story went viral and got like 10.6. And then just like a month ago,

we extended it to an hour long. Right. Cause we had the concept, we had the base there. And then we just extended, extended it. Like it went on for a week longer right of like different stuff right um and we told that through the perspective of us not knowing it was going on watching her actions

through security cameras a week after she did all of it does that make sense yes yes so uh yeah that's that does that answer your question yeah yeah it did that's that's a wild concept though so you don't disclose this, though. You make people guess which ones are real and which ones are fake. The thing is, the first 10 were 100% real. So it was like, I was just standing on it. I'm like, dude, this happened. They're like, there's no way this happened.

Now we're out of material. And then we run out of material. And I was worried. And she could say, I had the stairs in the woods in my notes for months. Because I'm like, this is going to be the first fake one. This is the first one. And I knew it. Because it was just this really cool concept that was from this old Reddit post 10 years ago.

That was like a phenomenon of these mythical staircases in the woods. That the park rangers don't even know why they're there. But they just pop up and disappear randomly. So that's the concept. There was a Reddit thread on this? Yeah. It's called like search and rescue something. Can you pull this up?

Yeah. It's really popular. But it was popular like early 2000s, right? When that creepypasta Reddit thing was going on. And my friend told me about it. And I was like, that's a weird concept. And I looked into it and I found myself disturbed by it, one. But two, I felt like I wanted more. I felt like there's not enough about this.

It's a bunch of threads. It's pretty cool. It's way too much to read. Nine years ago. Yeah. Whoa. Which is also smart because now you have reference. It's a fake story, but people can go,

no, no, I saw this on Reddit too. It must be real. Yeah. One thing that's annoying is that they say I stole this story and I'm reading it word for word, and that's not even remotely true. It's so different. It's just the concept. Yeah, you used the concept and made a story. Exactly. And what's not even remotely true. If it's so different, it's just the concept.

And then I used the concept and made a story. Exactly. And what, what, what happened in that story? That's your most famous video. Yeah. But I couldn't even tell you what happened. We were doing that on a daily basis, 12, like that was the hardest month of our life. Like it was a month to do that. It took 30 days straight. Yeah. That was like an hour, 20 minutes or something. Yeah. And people were like, come on, you recorded it all. We know all we know you recorded it all i'm like bro i don't even know what's happening next i'm figuring out what's happening next tomorrow as you're going as i'm going on a daily the pressure and five million people i'm tuning in every single night like next part next part come on i know you have recorded just drop the whole thing you know that they want it they want the whole thing and

that's why on youtube your videos i like how you do that like in in them it intermittently and we're going to put some on the screen a little bit but it intermittently goes to like part four part five and that's for tiktok but you'll repeat the last line yes of the last video we stopped doing opener we stopped doing that because the youtube people hate that i yeah so what they hate when i repeat the last line because i was making them for tiktok so we just had the projects I didn't know I was going to convert into a YouTube video so I just had the project file and I would basically like we had so much going on we were still writing so I didn't have enough time to like redo the editing and resize and take out the hooks of each each one to make it just like that I kind of like that though I fuck the YouTube people I

kind of like that because it resets the deck and it goes, wait, all right, wait, that was a serious moment. Like if you're just kind of working while you're listening. Yeah, if you're zoning out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's hard to zone out with you, but you know, still. Some people loved it, but most commonly on YouTube, people talk shit about it.

So our pinned comment is a very petty explanation of it because I was sick of getting those comments. Yeah. Now, when you say, because I know you, like your first ever post was of getting those comments. Yeah. Now, when you say, because I know you, like, your first ever post was on TikTok. Yes. Yeah. I knew TikTok was, so I have been obsessed with the content for a long time because I knew it was the biggest opportunity of our generation. Right. And we all know that. That's why we do this. Right. I didn't like the idea of, like, but my only other options were be – if a firefighter, if I get a good number on the test or a construction worker or something like that.

What did your parents do? My dad is a teacher and my mom was an accountant. OK. You know, so – Standard. But – so like it was standard but I have parts of my family that I really – like I latch on to certain family members that are very high achieving. My uncle is Pat Riley. Whoa like the like like the like Patty Rings Patty Rings like all like every finger that's my mom like your uncle uncle or is it is my grandfather's brother it's my grandfather's

little brother yeah and I grew up with my my grandpa so your grandfather's the older Riley yes he's Leon Riley who's in the nfl gangster what rest in peace is my favorite man in the world leon riley his little brother is pat riley and when i was a little kid i have vivid memories of going to games and pat riley holding me and walking me around stadiums and like uh the center for them at the time like pulling down the net from one of the games and giving it to me going on limo ride with pat riley and feeling that gangster and i and i was a kid and i was like this is interesting you're important this is like you're a high achiever and i felt that i i don't talk to him much anymore he's pat riley you know

i haven't talked you know like i like i was i was in high he's the president of the miami heat now winning championships i was growing up in chicago he's one of the goats, man. Yeah. But very high achievers in my blood. So I would read his books and I'm like, I want to be like you. Or my Aunt Regina, who was writing in Hollywood, Sons of Anarchy, HBO, Showtime, Netflix. She's a gangster, dude. And she's a writer. So she's somebody I go to a lot for what we're doing right now. Yeah, especially for what you're doing.

Christ, right there. She's very proud because for a while she was like nobody understood what i was doing you know no the older generation doesn't know what we're doing they don't understand what we're pursuing how long have you been a content creator like officially as your full-time well i was poor so i didn't have the money to get any of the equipment but i i wanted to be since i was about 18 you know and i knew i wanted to do it uh and i would just i watched rogan when i was 18 like i would just be watching him i want to do something like that how old are you now i'm 27 okay yeah so i knew but i uh at that time that generation of content creators i didn't like them um i felt like it was really low quality content i felt like everything was every joke was at somebody's expense

i felt vlogging era kind of thing yes and that was like when brian was popping off so it was the six second clips just people being dumb ass yeah and the pause coming up and like i have nothing against them whatsoever but it's like when i would see that that time of like how they were acting um i didn't like it i want to be affiliated with it yeah um and i knew the higher production type of things i wanted to be a part of that. And I knew that would just take time and me saving up money and buying equipment here and there. And then during COVID, I was, you know, I've been working at jujitsu schools for a long time.

And COVID happened. And then I start getting unemployment from them. And then crypto happens. And I crush in crypto. God damn it. You knew it was coming. Yeah. There's something there.

Yeah. All right. Define crush it in crypto. I just knew I was coming yeah there's something there yeah and i define crush it in crypto i just knew i was bro like everything i like i'm sure you guys do this i'm prepared when it's happening i'm like i'm gonna figure that out tiktok shop new feature i'm connecting skill iq to this and i'm selling something the second it comes out yeah i'm studying crypto i have external wallets i have everything like i i just i need to learn it so you didn't lose all of it yeah no hell no i got all my stuff you know like i got i immediately reinvested it in myself but i i

didn't have anything like i was working at a jiu-jitsu school i was wiping mats saying what's up signing people for jiu-jitsu and traveling and just like i didn didn't have resources. So the second I had resources and I was able to get the stuff I needed one year later, I'm where I'm at. So it's just a lack of resources. It was just a lack of resources. That's it. I understand your conundrum completely. I mean, I could tell when I look at this, I go, you're New Jersey me. Thank you. Yeah. No, like I, I just, I relate to you so much. because I see this and I'm like you did this all yourself I could see how you got some help along the way

that's the thing I've been working 7 days a week for over 4 years now it's getting old and it's starting to affect my quality of life to be honest with you there's been a lot of other stuff going on too but yes for when I started working on this March 2020,

from March 2020 until the end of April 2023 was every single thing down to every comment done by me. Yes. And then we brought on some shorts editors. That's where Alessi started. And now he's picked up more and more hats because we've added a lot of hats to as we go but if you go to those three years though nothing ever truly happens alone you need a guy like john ronnie to come down on a monday and january 4 2021 and fucking there it is do the damn thing with you right you need you need your parents in this case this is this was a huge benefit i had that

appears you had and you had as well when i turned down my contract to decide like oh i didn't want to do that with my career and turn down all that money my dad and my mom let me move in and build the studio there no rent yep most people don't get that opportunity it doesn't happen without them doesn't happen without all the people who come through there. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, yes, there is – there's the part of it that we build ourselves and we grind and most people never see it or appreciate it. I'll admit recently out of nowhere I have started to take some offense to when people talk about overnight success with some stuff.

Oh, yeah. With me and I wasn't taking offense to it but I realized the night, like now I'm starting to take offense to that shit. So like, yeah, it doesn't happen that way, but it's a beautiful process for it to come together because you see everything that went into it and the people that also made it possible with you. So obviously I'm looking at that right now too. We got a perfect example. You know what I mean? So that's really cool. And I appreciate you saying that. I take pride in us building this thing, Bootstrap. That's why I like this – like I'm saying this – I feel like we're in the same generation of content creators. And it feels authentic.

I meet you guys and I'm like, oh, we're doing the same thing. Like this is – you guys have done this the same way I've done it opposed to the earlier guys. said that like when I was younger and I'm looking around and I'm like, I don't like put it, I don't want to put out a video where the whole, the whole thumbnail, the whole concept of this video was humiliating somebody they don't know. That's right. I, it just felt so disingenuous to me. It just felt like, so I just don't want to be a part of that. I don't like what you guys are doing. You know, I like connecting with people. Like I've clearly, I'm a cheery guy. I'm like not hard to get up. Like I'm not hard to get along with, you know, you're so hard to get along with you know you're so hard to get along with you know tough conversation and it's it i would just see that and i'm like i want to be like uh of course like um there's like uh the brian callens you know fighter and the kids like these types of people i was like oh they do

group pods they're friends like they make content they hang out they monetize it and i saw that and i was like that's wholesome that's what i want to do with my friends that's cool i want to do that i don't i don't like the clickba. We're making fun of this person during this. I'm with you. When I was going through for about six months from March until I launched publicly September 2020, that year, I didn't tell anyone what I was working on. I did it all day, every day. And I would go through and study every piece of content, not just podcasts and stuff. But I had never been into the vlogs. I knew who these people were.

Never really watched them. But what I would do is I would watch how they made the content and I'd be very impressed with the skill of what went into some of that. Some of them not so much, but some of them were like very well put together, whatever. But I had the same thought where I'm like, this isn't real. Yeah. Like I'm all about you know it and i've talked to you about this a ton and you a lot like if i had to walk in here

and change who i am as a person would never work yeah and and it felt like in vlogs it's like it's not really you ever see a vlogger in person you ever seen vlog it's it's it's cringy i've never seen it dude it is i i was i'm not even saying it like i was with a streamer and like watching them go it's like do you even like yourself like is that that's gotta be a hard persona to keep up with but i noticed that too like the best vloggers i think they're most they're one of the some of the most annoying people because they just ramble and they can talk for days and days and they have that's that's a skill that other people see and like that's fucking no i can't be around that but they're leveraging that to now getting millions of views on whatever they're doing so like kudos to them but i agree it just feels they also you got to keep in mind

they blew up when making content was uncool right so all you really had to do in high school if we all said fuck it we're gonna make six second videos and we don't care what our friends think. We're going to be viral creators. We could have done that, but everybody around us was like, no, this is not the cool thing to do. Now we're playing in a space that everybody wants to be a creator.

Nobody wants to be anything but a creator right now. When did that happen? It happened when people realized, holy shit, I get paid 50 grand. Like what the fuck? Money? Yeah, it was money. They're going to parties with athletes. They're going to parties with athletes they're going to parties with celebrities and like now they are the ones that are getting in line they're

they're cutting the line before everybody else so like they are new cool kids on the block you know what i noticed the the um the feeling of the people on instagram are very different than the feeling of the people on tiktok oh yeah because instagram are mostly people our age maybe a little bit older and they're fully aware of the monetary benefits of this. So they're much more stingy with engagement and stingy with follows. They are dude. Opposed to TikTok, they're kids and they have no idea what's going on. They're just like, I like this guy, comment, comment, comment, follow, follow, follow. And I feel like there's an undertone of resentment on Instagram. That's a really good point. I think you're 100% right.

I never thought of it like that. But you post an ad on Instagram. It's like, boo, you sold out. I sold out. I'm still fucking living, man. What do you want me to tell you? Yeah, I'm supporting a brand that I like. People put their fake world on that too.

I would never do that. There's such an aesthetic feel to Instagram and stuff. We've all been caught up in it at one point or another. But there's people who live on that lie. Yeah. And on TikTok, it's only video. Like, obviously, Instagram's moving to a lot of video stuff now. But a lot of people still post pictures and stuff on TikTok.

It's like, you can't really hide in video. If you do, you better be acting. And you better be good at it. And there are people who are. But I'm saying, like like the average person can't. So there's less of a, there's more of a feel like also the app launched off of the backs of 13, 14 and 15 year olds. So in people's minds, it's wired as like, oh, the fun kids app. I can do what the fuck I want here.

Yeah. One thing I really like about YouTube is that I feel like they have an understanding of how hard this is. And I feel like they appreciate it. And when you say they, you mean your audience? Yes. I just feel like people that watch YouTube in general, you know, obviously there's so many people, but they could look at what you're doing and they go, wow, this is well put together. TikTok is just, wow, you entertain me for two minutes. I like you. You're something, somebody that I think is cool. Right. And usually because they're younger, right? Instagram is, I resent you for pursuing this.

And you know what I'm saying? It really is like a small niche of people that don't fall in that bucket for some reason. Where like people are happy when they post and they love to support. And then everybody else is like, I talk about the fitness space all the time because it's grueling.

And I genuinely feel bad for those people because now you live up to like, I need to have abs to be happy. I'm gonna pull that mic up a little bit, sorry. Sorry. So you have like these like individuals, you can probably count on one hand of like guys and girls that when they post everybody loves and then everybody else trying to chase those people

are just shit on every time. It's really is a shitty scene. You know who's doing an amazing job in the fitness space? Sam Sulek. Yes, yes. Joey Swole. on every time it's it's it really is a shitty scene you know who's doing an amazing job in the fitness space sam so look yes yeah yes uh joey swole nowadays i haven't seen him so joey swole has complete like obviously he's jacked right i'm pretty sure he's from my town but uh i never met him but he has changed his content to correcting behavior in gyms and he's absolutely jacked i've seen this guy yeah he's absolutely jacked he was a big he was very big on youtube but and he was a fit influencer uh but then you have the people

that do the vlogs like bradley martin he has comedy mixed into his of course uh but uh and his are more vlog style just very more like natural joey swole is just a fitness guy and now he's like you can't be like somebody will record somebody making fun of them in the gym and he stitches it and goes the gym is a safe place yes and you need to like at least he's there yes you know so you're a fan of him i just think it's cool that he he like the the issue that fitness people are running into he pivoted to i'm the jack guy in the gym and i'm actually super nice so not to i don't know the, but I will combat what you're saying. But number one, I think the message is appropriate and right. That being said, Joey Swole was the guy that, you know, remember what Shreds was?

Yes. So he's a Shreds athlete. I met the founder of Shreds. Yeah. So the company was known for kind of falsifying what they were selling and then having the first ever Photoshopped athletes. Like that, that was their whole thing where like once they started exposing the guys that like, hey, that's a fake picture, everything kind of fell through.

Now this guy, I do feel is a bit performative. Like I think the message is, yeah, I get it dude, but you're not that nice of a guy. And people say that a lot. Like he's not as genuine and like, hey, so great to see you as he seems. And I think he is playing off the fact like he knows this one does well now. Let me go run with that.

And what I'm saying, I wasn't vouching for him personally. I was saying he recognizes the trend of where he's at. And he's doing it. It's smart, man. Oh, shit. I can now be the good guy and get millions of views. Fuck yeah, I'm doing that. Yes.

Yeah. At the end of the day, the message is appropriate. Like be nice to people. I feel like the early content creators really took advantage of their audiences and i feel like that's where a lot of the resentment grew because yes oh this supplement makes me jacked and then five years later your weight yeah yeah minus the trend that i'm taking but everything else yeah exactly it's my fish oil because again also when they were coming up it was pictures only so they could do all kinds of damage and we didn't have all the Photoshop police like we do now. Yeah.

Right? So I remember doing a podcast early on, one of the solo podcasts. I did like a three-part series going through influencers and just researched it. That's smart. And I was like kind of – some of it I had missed. Other parts of it I had been very aware of that was going on. But I'm just like what – I'd like to think think I guess I can't know unless I was there but I'd like to think that there'd be something in me that before I press send on some of these things about like

this is gonna make you lose all your weight pill or whatever I would have been like well this is bullshit you can't do this like because I care about what I look like to people as far as like being someone who supports things that are not scammy and stuff like that. Like, you know how many brands, unless you've seen it, how many brands reach out all the time? And I'd love to take their money. My God. I feel like it's all the shitty brands that reach out. But they're reaching out with like some scam like crypto NFT or something. I'm like, no, we're not doing it.

You know what I mean? Because you only have who you are. Once you lose that, people will forget. It's like an interesting strategy of like, if you have a really core audience, right? Let's say you had a Discord chat and you had like code words to be like, hey, look, I'm gonna make money on this ad, don't buy it.

I'm gonna use these words in my ad, so you know this is fake. And then you say those words in the video without having a wink. And everybody else knows, but the brand is like, we just got so many clicks. You don't buy this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should totally buy this. And then say some dumb shit.

But that is the problem. It's like the combination of like we're doing this for a business. And I'm sure I've sold things that aren't as genuine as I would like them to be. But when you get caught up in the moment, like you don't really – not that you don't care. You lose sight of how, I was telling this story the other day. I, we used to sell smoke kits,

like little smoke boards. Oh yeah. And in the beginning I would go to Home Depot, buy a ton of like little wood thing, like pallets, and then wrap up like styrofoam and fucking sell it. It was ridiculous. And I was getting comments of like,

what kind of wood is that? And I was like, I donam and fucking sell it. It was ridiculous. And I was getting comments of like, what kind of wood is that? And I was like, I don't fucking know, pine. I must've commented pine a thousand times till my dad was like, why do you keep saying pine? I'm like,

I don't know why, who cares? He's like, pine is toxic. You can't fucking burn pine. It'll, yeah, like you,

you're not, because it's, it's finished. Yeah, yeah. He's like, what the fuck are you doing? And I was like,

holy shit, I may have just ruined somebody's day because I didn't take the time to really care and do the research what i was actually careful yeah you do because you're young and stupid in yeah i just realized oh wait i saw mine too yeah i just realized something in real time when uh because you know sometimes you're doing stuff and you don't realize what you're doing but you're trying to justify and justify to yourself selling something. We had a really good connect for our merchandise. A very good friend of mine, his family owned a retail store at Navy Pier in Chicago. So they had connections to printers and manufacturers that we were able to get orders of very high quality garments for retail price. And I was

like, you know what? What I think would be really cool is if I get the highest quality heavyweight hoodie that I can, that's $28 per unit. We're not going to make that much on it, but I could say, look at this, this, and I would show the screenshot of the website. I'm like, this is how much each one of these costs. This is the thread. You could, you know, that this isn't just a middleman merchandise. You're getting high quality hoodies from me you're gonna have this forever and then i would do i would record videos at the print shop that was right down the street from our gym i'd be like look i'm here during the printing process and i just thought it was cool because i was in the middle of making merchandise so i was like interested in it genuinely but looking back at it i was showing them look i

care look this is high quality smart you know who um saul hank is you know saul hank makes the sandwiches fucking phenomenal so he's he he every every video he'll start he slaps bread down um smears the sauce on the bread like that's every video and it works every time and he's consistent so you i'm sure you've seen it but anyway his strategy right now with his saul and his uh book is very um genuine and it makes you feel like you're part of this. So he'll open up a video on a story and be like, guys, I'm super nervous. Like, please, I hope this goes well. Please support me. And now you feel like, oh, I have to be a part of this. Whereas like sometimes people go the opposite route and be like, we're crushing it. Another launch. Here you go. Go buy this because it's the best. He's like, no, I hope to god this goes well because last 10 did not go well and then you buy it it could be all fake

you know that could be like a persona he's putting on but he's crushed he's doing a great job yeah he seems like the homie you know yeah because that's the other thing a lot of people have to they feel like they have to put on this like facade of like constantly like things are good or whatever yeah you know there is something there is something i i've always felt like in being somewhat honest with the audience like hey you know we're not doing as well right now or hey you know we we got to improve this or this thing's going wrong there there's some things obviously that happen behind the scenes that you can't really talk about publicly which sucks but i've always felt like hey i'd rather people know i don't own a couch yet than you know think i'm fucking you

know balling over here yeah uh i tried this thing where i would have people in the audience send in designs and i would feature the artist who made the design and i would put it onto the hoodie that's cool it is really cool no one bought any and not too cool and not too cool i thought it was i thought it was super cool but then tick tock stopped showing my videos to people because i exposed them which sucked but uh now i have 400 hoodies in my closet at home and now when people ask like oh can you please make some merch i go there is some and i tell them the story of the tragic i used all of the profits i made from the first first drop and then i did the second one

there with you man and we just there's like 500 mugs outside the link is literally on the video who do i gotta fuck for a mug sale right and they go i just don't really like this design and i'm like i feel you i was just trying to put a young artist on like trying to make this like movement of young artists you know just trying to like you know artist on, like trying to make this like movement of young artists, you know, just trying to like, you know, I just think it's cool sharing your platform with people that aren't expecting it. Just cause it's just like, like giving somebody that moment of they've been grinding,

learning how to design things and they like my stuff and they send it in. And I go, bro, I'm putting this on, I'm putting this on a hoodie and I'm selling it. Cause you're sick. Keep going. Cause how much that would mean to me at that time.

You know what I'm saying? And I was planning on sharing the profits with them, but we didn't sell it. There was no profits. Oh, so you're, you're genuine, keep going. Because how much that would mean to me at that time. You know what I'm saying? And I was planning on sharing the profits with them, but there was no profits. Oh, so you're genuine. But that story is like... Yeah, that's true. Bro, I had this whole thing where I was like, if we sell these out, I'm going to FaceTime this kid

and I'm going to tell him. I didn't tell him ahead of time. And I was like, I'm going to FaceTime this kid and I'm going to be like, bro, you got 15% of this. This is how much you got. What's your Venmo? Damn. And nobody, nobody bought it. That story though is like so close. I don't know. I mean, this is like a genuine way. He's like so close to being on the right side of the coin where like, you're only one more idea away from that being the reality. You know what I'm saying? Like whatever happens next, that genuineness and that like creativity of selling, that's how I feel

like big name artists. I was in an Eden Gallery a couple days ago and I saw Alec Monopoly's pictures all over the place. I'm like, how much of that one? She's like, a hundred and some thousand. I'm like, how do you get there? You know what I mean? Like now your name is so well known.

And I'm sure there's like little stories like that that are just so cool that now he hopped up and up and up stems, you know? Yeah, his stuff is so exciting i think a parallel to that is uh russ you see you see how russ yeah exactly yeah i just i watched this interview with him he's he's really cool he was just on flagrant i think a little bit ago yeah i believe so he was talking about having a catalog when people find you yeah right and the idea of having a big massive body of work that nobody's ever seen. You make them feel something one time,

but now there's all this. And I used that. I built playlists on TikTok. You guys know the playlist feature, of course. And I had like when a video would go viral, I would go, hey guys, if you like something like that, all you have to do is go to my profile, click this playlist,

and there's 40 videos just like that. And I would turn one view into 40. All right, I've been doing this one. I'm on this one turn one view into 40 all right i've been doing this one i'm on this that's smart yeah i've been doing this on youtube that but and this goes back to tiktok which is it's probably gonna piss you guys off even more about tiktok they nerfed that because i crushed doing that because they nerfed it they nerfed did you know what nerf means like the call of duty reference yeah um basically they said new stipulations to creativity program you only get paid for views that are on the for you page get the fuck out of here come on that's why they say like you don't

get paid if someone goes to your profile they're hurting over there yeah yeah president g's not happy that's great i love that term though by the way i get nervous i fucking love it yeah they nerfed it i i had i was like oh this is perfect i have these playlists and i would see it happen i would send them to the playlist and boom, every video. You could see your activity page and everything starts going crazy. And I'm like, oh, we turned. We're rich. Yeah, a 5 million video.

You know, we have one video that goes 5 million and we actually got 30 million views because of it. That's awesome. Right? That's still helpful for your brand now. But overall, you know. Yeah, 100%. But they nerfed that. And then they also, the following tab, you don't get paid for that either so yes bro

yes bro so this is why we had to jump ship because it's like i made a whole thing though because then there's the the angle of like hey guys i'm trying to like you give them a goal you're you guys are in this with me i'm gonna keep posting every day for this can you guys help me get to a million followers i'm trying to change my life i'm trying to support my family right and they get you there and then tiktok goes now you don't get paid for the people that support and watch you so it's only for you so the people that the million people we should be getting a million views on every single video we post and get like if they want to throw out of the rpm all good like you want to give me 50 30 cents that's

fine at least i have stability that's right they follow me and the people that want to see my stuff i don't get paid for the people that want to see my stuff. That's so ass backwards. It just doesn't make sense. Again. Because your whole business, John, like you have the greatest setup ever because pretty much you make drinks and then you hit up the alcohol companies and say, hey, we're making a gin and tonic. Who's got the highest bid? So it's an ad without an ad. But like if you're working on telling a story that doesn't have like a product placement in there you're living off yeah that kind of money luckily now they're like that was an issue

because the brands weren't they're like how do we fit this in here how do we do it and i was thinking i was like i could say i was drinking this water i just drinking out of this mug i could plug it into a story nobody would notice but the brands don't see that they don't see that angle they don't they don't let you just like again you're drinking water and say you know mid-story this video is sponsored by blank and then move on. No, cause it just, it would crush the pace of the story. It would. You know what I'm saying?

Oh, that's true. Cause it's immersive. My stuff's very immersive. He's very immersive, yeah. I'd be so curious to see like a drop off line as soon as you're like, this video is sponsored by. We never did it on TikTok. Cause, and then there's also like the brands don't respect,

like I'm sure for you that's it works. So they're like we'll pay you a fair rate for us they're like we don't see how this is working let me it's not organic exactly yeah um but on youtube it's uh we're lucky now because we uh you know we have a doberman pincher and we'd be like hey we have this dog who's kind of like a badass looking dog dog food companies this is part of our life we could push this this is you know like wholesome stuff that's in there and i get to record a video of my dog there's also a more expect there's a bigger expectation of that on youtube where you know it's a longer form video you know you're doing a 15 20 hour minute video or something you know they have to pay for this somewhere in there and people have like on on youtube they're clicking it they made this decision they went

to a whole fucking new page and they're there yeah now on mobile some people click off sure you still have that but on tiktok the algorithm god clicked it for him and the minute that they're not entertained i mean i'm sure you guys all noticed it too on tiktok i i've stayed with the same shtick if you guys have too and i'd have to drop like three to four seconds now every couple months because that's how bad the attention span. So I used to start with an intro like this. I'd add some flair. I'd add this. And now I have to cut all that to go right to the main.

Like you said, you have a really good hook. Maybe it's a picture for me like a nice looking cocktail or a question I have. And then all the bullshit that I used to put in, I can't even – my dad drops a spoon. I used to keep it in because it's kind of fun. I can't even have that shit in there anymore. That's right. It's fucking insane. Yeah Yeah, I know when one of your videos is gonna is gonna go before Yeah before it does cuz I'm like well how how quick were they into it? Yeah, dude

I know it's fucking I threw my dad a banana the other day I was like, hey, can you make me a cocktail and he's like, let's make a blank and instead of me going and saying Alright dad, you're gonna make me a blank. Let's do it I cut all that and I got right to the scene of him chopping up the banana. Like it has to be that quick right now. And it's insane. I'm sure you guys have more pressure for that than me. I'm going completely against that.

You are. So I am now taking, so a lot of the stories, like we have the full long ones, right? They're an hour long. Obviously the minute is, the limit is 10 minutes on TikTok. But sometimes we do three story compilations that are eight to 15 minutes ish. They add up to 45. I'm just taking that full story and we're completely reconverting it into a TikTok tall and I'm posting nine minute videos. Yeah, but hold on. Hold on. I don't even care. Alessi, can you pull up my YouTube page real quick and hit popular videos? I want to,

I think I know what this is. So John, when you're doing these things, they tend to be an acted out scene. It's not someone up on a mic, up close like that. There's a scene. There's more for people to process. There's more people in it. If you look at our most popular videos of all time, I'm going to look at these first eight. Sean Ryan right there, number two, doesn't count because Sean is an enormous YouTuber, great guy. By the way, everyone check out his channel and promoted the fuck out of this video and made that go.

And it was an incredible episode. But if you look at the other videos, Paul Rosalie, Joe Ted, I James Fox, Matt LaCroix and Andy Bustamante represent the top episodes. What they all have in common is they all speak quickly and they all have massive charisma. Now, James Fox, some sometimes will speak slower, but he has massive charisma. Oh, my God. Oh, my God, you have to see this. So anyway, so he keeps you because he's like, and unless he's laughing because he made Moment of Contact with him down in Brazil, so he knows it up close.

But like all these people, they have a way of drawing you in. You have that same exact thing. So when people hit your video, you are already, you talk very quickly, but you talk well, you speak well, and you have charisma to your voice. You have a way of doing these scripts where and I was talking about this off camera with you, but you do these scripts to where the tonality works. And I know you're doing line by line and remembering what the line was and then going with it. So it's like you're doing them all separately. But it sounds like it's continuous, which is very, very hard to do. So when someone is clicking a video with John and his dad and they're clicking a video with you, these are two very different – and same with Click of Mind. They're very, very, very different content strategies. So you can do something where like, okay, you have that opening hook line like you talked about earlier and lay out how that is and then lay the patchwork because you're also like eyes right there looking at him talking it's funny you say that i don't wear glasses when i record because i have intense eyes that's right

and people people say it and they're like and i'll make sure that the first clip is me looking away and then looking right at the camera so it's somebody it's like the psychology of somebody looking away from you, then now I'm telling you a story. I'm right here, and I'll be like here. So it's intense, and I do the thing the same way you made me take a thumbnail, out of the top of my eyes. Go to shorts.

Go to our shorts. That's smart. And I make sure it's intense. Just start off with just like you feel like I'm looking at you. Do you notice a difference in when you look away and then start versus just start it straight? If it starts off happy-go-lucky and not intense, they don't do as well. Right.

That's what I noticed. No, I'm talking about if you just started real intense or versus here and then going. Nothing really great. Nothing really, nothing really, yeah. Yeah, the intense dragon, man. Yeah, I also noticed that, yeah. I also noticed that more amateur looking podcast clips do better.

Dude, I was just going to say this before we live in a day and age now with TikTok is it's this frustrating balance of less is more, but understand exactly what you have to be doing. Nobody wants to see this like perfect, you know, if you, if you, it's like, oh, you're trying way too hard, dude. I'm not going to like this thing. You want to see people using perfect you know if you if you it's like oh you're trying way too hard dude i'm not gonna like this thing you want to see people using text on the tiktok app you want to see them kind of fucking up where i've spelled things wrong just because then i get comments it's real yeah they're like oh sick fucking way to spell that word but we put mistakes in our story so they correct us yeah dude it's smart we that's engagement harvesting i like that we did this one that started off

as a true story it was a kidnapping story right so it started off as a true story where this dude almost got me and my sister at a subway right he was just a creepy old dude with like really soft hands right true story happened to us you felt him he shook my hand he's like he's like what's your name young man and i was like david you know i just lied to his face but uh we made that seem like he uh honed in on me and then when we extended it that he like actually eventually kidnapped me and it was this whole creepy thing where he was keeping me captive in my local park district right um in there i put the way that i got out is that i found a game boy events that was in a lost and found bin in there and it had a messenger thing in it right so the game boy events used to have a messenger thing and that's how i

got the word out to my friend we played pokemon pokemon together so i was able to do that so that was the climax of me escaping from that story but i said that he was forcing me to play the game boy and he was just had he had an infatuation with watching me play so he would sit there at the edge of the cage rub his rub his belly with lotion that's how his hands got so soft creepy uh um and but the the game boy game was game boy yellow it was pokemon yellow yes right you play pokemon yellow no but i know yeah you don't get to choose your starter pokemon it's pikachu and i said i chose charmander yeah a complete liar uh you didn't get to choose your starter pokemon and pokemon yellow because it's a you know like it's uh it's a cultural moment in time where people remember like no when is pokemon yellow i got people want to be right and they're like you're a dumbass they want to be right so bad

they want to be like i know this and you don't i'll be like we showed up to this place it was me this person and this person so three people all together and then i go and i'll say like four people walk back you do that on purpose you said that there was four three people there just so they're like you're dumb as shit. It was four people. This kid's definitely lying. See, the problem works

really well for him. If we did that, now we're spreading misinformation. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, here's how to make a Negroni

and I completely fucked it up. Now people walk around like, well, Johnny Drinks told me to fucking make it like this and now you're an idiot.

But you're telling stories. It's amazing. You can't go out and be like, this is how to do something and this is what I learned because it's fucking fake. I can't be like, be like, this is how to do something. This is what I learned because it's fucking fake. I can't be like, you know,

saying which president is wrong. It doesn't work. Yeah, no. You're just, that's a really good strategy. We noticed it one time and I was like, oh, we're doing this forever now.

Love that. Right? And I wanted to bring this up because we brought up James Fox. Yeah. I want to give a shout out to Jeremy Corbell because he was the first dude

that actually had a following that gave me the time of day and so i was before i was doing like interviews also i didn't know where i was going with the content i didn't know storytelling and i was just reached the same way you guys reach out to people you guys have the list of people that you're interested in i was like i like the ufo topic uh jeremy i've seen him on some pods and i emailed him and he emailed me back personally he's like yeah i'll come on and he was such a nice dude and he gave me two hours of his time. We had a great pod. I don't even think it's up anymore because I niched down my channel.

But I just want to give him a shout out because he's a really good dude. And usually people with their like people with a platform like I had nothing at the time. Zero. Like I'm talking like 200 subs. And he's like, I'll give you two hours of my time. I think about that often. Like I'm always trying to take the calls. I don't see all of them come in or whatever.

I answer DMs as much as i can i answer a lot of emails because we're all you know you all start somewhere and at one point you were that person i never really did a lot of reach out to people because i figured they never answered but like when people do i'm like all right that takes balls to do that yeah let's go we've had people in the studio that like george reached out i was like yeah come on in you You know what I mean? I hope you guys feel it. Like once, like I called Alessi, really good dude. Super cool. We're FaceTiming in my yard.

He has a Doberman too. We love the same kind of dogs. I was like, I like this guy. And he was like, oh, Julian said, we'd like to have you on the pod. I'm like, cool. We booked a flight two days later. And I wanted to make it as efficient as I possibly could for you guys.

Like, hey, this is when we can do it. Let's get this done. Cause I know how hard it is to reaching out. I appreciate you make it as efficient as I possibly could for you guys. Like, hey, this is when we can do it. Let's get this done because I know how hard it is to reaching out to guests. I appreciate you doing it too because we ramped up the volume of podcasts. I used to cover all the travel for everyone, but now it's like some if they're coming from really far, we'll get it or something like that. But having people come in here and being able to take time out of their day to do that, I really appreciate it. It makes this thing go. And being here, we'll probably do a story here.

We'll probably figure it out. Yeah, there's a lot of stories so walk along sinatra drive you'll see yeah yeah oh my god and then walk mid inland hoboken yeah there's just some stories for sure yeah yeah yeah i'll take you down the street we want to start uh traveling and doing this like wherever the story takes place we want to shoot it there that's smart i like that yeah i like that hold that thought for one minute i just gotta go to the bathroom cool we'll be right back yeah but it's for it's forgiveness with like i feel like the behind it is much more angry than forgiveness because i'm like you're fucked but yeah but it's it's their loss yeah if you're willing to fuck someone like me over who only gave you opportunity i dude i'm i'm with i'm with you 100

we're back on now okay but yeah i mean like sometimes i'll get we were just talking off camera about people fuck you over but like sometimes you know i mean unless he sees me i'll get really pissed off when someone does something but it's a good thing they're not standing there yeah you know because then i'll i'll simmer down you've seen it too i'll summer down a little bit i'm like you know what whatever i'll sell it god bless that's the end of it because if you let it continue to take up a spot in your mind well now they are winning something they're not even trying to win yeah yeah i don't have time for that you know like we've been through a lot of struggles she's uh she's from a worse part of chicago than i am you know and we've we finally just got out of it. You know, like my life is so different today than it was last year.

And every day I wake up, I live in a house that I pay for, that I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to, like, literally this time last year, I was commuting on a new Nagi scooter in the middle of winter to the Loop on public transportation in Chicago. Eyelashes completely covered in ice clothes because it was the only money like it was the only thing that i had i couldn't afford a car and i had to take this scooter get on a train and scoot in the middle of winter with ice to this job that i had to work at six days a week and today i live in not anymore not anymore anymore and what could this person do to me that is going to get me out of the happiness that i'm in they can't there's nothing you could do if you try to hit me that's it like i'll handle it but it's like i won't even follow up i don't care right i'll i'll i don't even have time for an

argument also know you could destroy him too because you're good at jiu-jitsu i haven't trained in a while i haven't trained in a while it's not crazy how insecure you feel on a mat we're like if you take off a month you're back on mine like oh fuck I don't know anything you train a lot consistently right no yeah not pretty consistently

no all my friends are really good you know like one of my best friends Ebro he's a black belt he's a freak

he's so good so he messes me I feel him I'm like I'm rusty and he got good you know it's a shitty feeling but it's

I gauge that through my friends who are fighting for one championship who are black belts who teach classes in big schools. So I know I'm all right to your average guy, but I feel rusty. I tell them, like, dude, my shoulder's hurting.

I feel like I can't throw a good right. I don't want somebody to come up with this. I can't throw a bomb. But then you realize when you go to the bar, you're like, all right, these would be like toddlers trying to fight me. I actually – yeah. I've been sober for five years. Good for you, man for you yeah that's awesome yeah what made you want to do that uh family uh and like it's you know saying hereditary yeah i it was just i just didn't

want that in my life you know like every sad part of my life the core of it was substance abuse and the adults around me you know i'm saying and just like, oh, very clear sign that that's not what you don't do. Was it in your own house? Sometimes. I love my parents. They gave me a house to, you know, they did everything. I have nothing bad to say about my parents. Love them. They supported me. In some places that we had to live out of financial reasons, I saw things when I was young that were not good, you know? And now once I was at an age where I was like, I don't have to do this. I don't have to go to a bar. I haven't been to a bar in five years. All I do is train and do this. I've eaten at a bar. I've eaten at a bar. I'm not saying like, I don't go to a pub for food. You know what I'm saying? I haven't went

out to a bar in five years. You know what I'm I'm saying? I like the way my life is set up. I like training. I like being at home. I cook a lot, actually. I really like cooking. I like living my life the way I like to live my life. I like to feel good.

I like to train hard. And I like to tell good-ass stories. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's it. If you tried to tell a story hungover, it would be terrible. Oh, yeah, dude.

I can't make content hungover. Yeah, no way. Like, all I wanted as a kid was an adult that was there for me every time. And so I just want to be that. You know, like you meet the same person every time. When I worked at jujitsu schools, these people are coming to here for this is a consistent thing in my life. I want to be a pillar for that person.

Yeah. So if you come near me, you're getting the same me every single time. You know what I'm saying? And it carries over into every part of our life. You know, I try to be the best partner I can to her. I'm the same person every single day. And I just try to do that. I've been and it carries over into every part of our life, you know, I try to be the best partner I can to her I'm the same person every single day and I just try to do that I've been doing for five years and on the five-year mark. I got my 100k Subscriber on the same day. I quit drinking five years later. I got 100 Good for you. It's weird. It's weird. It was a weird day. So I'm like this is the day

I quit five years ago and I made it today. That's pretty cool. It's weird. Right? When was that? September 12th my birthday good for you yeah and it came in on my birthday yeah that's that's the universe lining up yeah yes but i i keep on burying the lead on coming to summon your videos right here can we pull up his channel lessee yeah i want to take a look at this this one i mentioned it earlier because look at that brand that's all my designer right there. Yeah, it's good, man. I like it. Click the popular and then click the party I wish I never went to, which is starting to blow up right now, by the way.

Yeah. I noticed that. It's picking up now. I watched it two days ago. It was at like 90,000 views. Yeah, I upped the SEO. I've been learning SEO and stuff. Let's get the volume on.

Look at that. Fresh shade face. I encourage you to like and subscribe if you want, right? It helps me. It helps good to buy him on. Look at that. Fresh face. I encourage you to like and subscribe if you want. Right. It helps me. It helps you. The more it helps me, the more stories I can get to you. So liking and subscribing just absolutely backflip onto that subscribe button.

If you don't mind this story, I dropped a few months ago and it didn't get any traction when I initially started dropping it. And then it started to blow up on Facebook a month later after I had already abandoned it and moved on. But a lot of people demanded another part. So this is going to be the full story of the society with an extra. This is hard to watch for me, by the way. I'm so happy you started. You're doing great.

I really appreciate it. Enjoy the show. So this story is the reason I stopped making content for five years you guys remember when all those fine stars and skit instagram in like 2015 ish so i wasn't a huge creator at the time but i was there and around it all as all of that i bought this see bro i watched this and i was real fast bro i watched this and i go i got so much better that i saved up working then then this video this video is so good. Look where he paused it. Oh, yeah, yeah.

This is you at the steak and shaker. What was it called? Steak and shake. I was a waiter at steak and shake. I was drive-thru at steak and shake. Yeah. Is that when you fell in love with him, Jess? No, we met a year ago.

Oh. I didn't mean that. I was making a joke. Oh, my bad. Just over my head. She's like, hell no. Yeah, bow tie, something. All right, go ahead.

Is it on? Yeah, it's the last. Come on. It's steak and shake. With this other aspiring creator named David, I was much more into editing and being behind the camera at that time. And he was much more into Vine and vlogs and being on camera. That time of our lives was absolutely crazy.

Everybody was broke, posting anything we could onto YouTube to get some attention. I happened to get a spot at the now notorious 1600 Vine Apartments. Why? Do you lie in some of these? I was collaborating with everyone, and it was the era of clickbait YouTube. And to be honest, it was extremely fun for the first few months. Until Hollywood started to notice that influencers were the next big thing,

and that the landscape of the industry was changing. And we started to get invited to more exclusive parties and events, where it seemed as if old hollywood was almost grooming new hollywood and there was rumors of this one gathering that was happening on a monthly basis where it seemed like anybody that got invited saw a massive jump in their numbers secured huge brand deals right after attending but apparently this gathering worked on a buddy system someone had to vouch for you and bring you as a guest and by blind luck me and david ended up getting invited some talent agents saw me and david shoot a silly skit

at a random party. He didn't invite us that second. He just told us that he saw something special in us and took our contact information.

I should have known right there. Yeah, so just to give you a breakdown of this concept if you just want an idea of like the reason of the narrative. So I didn't blatantly say

that that's David Dobrik. Me and David Dobrik are from the same area in Chicago. I'm catching it now. You're catching it now, right? So like everything is very calculated in these. I put breadcrumbs in it for people to come to their own conclusions.

You know what I'm saying? This story goes into like they bring us to – it follows like Dante's Inferno. Each room is – Yes. Yeah. Each room is – I've never read that. Like worse and worse?

It's seven layers of hell basically, right? So first one is limbo. Second one is gluttonytony third one is greed fourth one is anger and so on right and the last ones are like treachery and violence and stuff like that or anger treachery and what like whatever so each room that you go into everybody is so bought into the concept of this next room and the first one i just imply it by saying yeah there's like a list celebrities here and they're like really into playing limbo and i'm acting like i don't understand what's happening but i'm implying that this is the limbo room and the next one goes in and there's a big feast and these a-list are like shoving food in their mouth like disgusting and i go what is up with

these people this is gross these people are horrible and the next room is uh it's like the sexual one what's that one lust lust um and then that's where it starts to get a little bit a little bit flirty people are doing like like that type of stuff but i say i'm behind the mask exactly i said i'm a little bit too young this is making me uncomfortable they're flirting with me too much but david is loving this intention right and he starts buying into this concept and the whole concept is that this party is a slow drip into treachery and in treachery you have to go do what they say that you have to do like the horrible hollywood things like as far as good have you had you heard stories like this not necessarily the same

thematics that you came up with with the details but had you heard from people you know some things that happen in hollywood only on like what you hear like in on podcasts and things of that nature like the cat williams shit and then like you see like how they were coming in and they were just getting freaky in that back you see the one where he's like they all have the same ugly white wife you see that that's just crazy dude's fucking funny i'm real or not the dude's fucking they're pulling up screenshots of dude's wives i'm like that's the most disrespectful shit i've ever seen that's so nuts bro um i knew baphomet was a trans 30 years ago so yes that i there was there's layers of that but then it's uh um my sister actually

my sister has been a waitress at freemasons parties that's that's all i want to say that's all i that's all i want to say but that's all you can say yeah uh but she was like you should do it like this because at these parties they do it like this yeah so but but her like these aren't bad dudes they're like really like low no they're just great what is the what is it it's a secret this free mason free and we we looked at like everything we do we research so i can tell yeah so free masonry is a secret society it's the oldest secret Society known so and you have to go through initiations but there's like levels to like Freemasons basically it's a bunch of men that come together everybody pulls money and then the leaders go you

go do this and run this business out of this big pool of money we're going to open this and you're going to be the manager and face of this and they run City based that way so it's like dudes come together and they pool money and they it's like the mob yes yes but they try to legalize it in a way but it's not yeah similar to scientology honestly but freemason yeah all right let's not yeah right yeah i mean it's pretty close like it's pooling of money and then they assign you something and then their secret handshakes and their secret initiations and things of that nature are they violent bro there's a freemason temple a block away from our old studio and i was like hey we should like uh maybe ask somebody outside then we decided against it and then we're like we probably shouldn't do this video until we move away from this studio why will they will they get violent towards if you're not i don't know

i don't know i might wake up to like a dead bird on your pillow or some shit. Just to warn you a little bit. Have you ever seen Eyes Wide Shut, the movie? No. It was 1999. It was Stanley Kubrick's last movie. So he goes to finish the main edit and dies. Now, he was a fossil. He was old.

He was like 70 or some shit. But dies of a heart attack conveniently. It was Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. And the plot is around. See that guy with the mask the gold mask right there let's click that one a lessee down down right there yeah that's tom cruise right and he's wearing like a masquerade mask what happens is he lives in new york city and i forget how it goes down but he ends up being invited to this secret party at some

fucking big ass estate in westchester county it's dark backwoods the whole bit he goes in and all these people are wearing these weird masks and fucking each other yeah and that's and and then he ends up getting like demasked there because he does something i forget what it is i'm not going to go through the whole plot but like they end up following him around and like torturing his life and it's like this secret like sex society or whatever. And so they say like, oh, did Kubrick get murked because he made like the Hollywood movie? I mean the guy was – Kubrick was also like trying to be sketchy. Like he filmed it at like the Rothschild Mansion in like London.

Yeah, like he was trying to be like this. Yeah, yeah. All right. I be like this yeah yeah all right i'm gonna go through all this it's funny like i i i don't get into like any of the conspiracy theories or i don't go down rabbit holes at all yeah but then as soon as you start telling stories like this i'm like oh i get it i can sit here and start going i've been to that party yeah i can hear about like i hear this i'm like hello tell me more i'm like oh ross trial i've heard the name like what's the story behind them and i think that whole thing is crazy but you want to know some it was kubrick trying to be like right you know like oh i'm gonna put this in there too yeah you want to know some crazy shit i of course i do

my mom's elementary school or middle school i forget is the building that was gifted to jeffrey epstein she went to that school i swear apartment yes my mom went to that school. I swear. The apartment. Yes. My mom went to that school. I swear, dude. That was gifted to him. He was gifted. The Macy's apartment on 71st. Whatever apartment that is that used to be a middle school is where my mom went to middle school. Sorry, my Zin's.

When people come into town, I take people there. I'm like the tour guy. I'm like, well, here it is. I swear. We get the Danny Jones picture. He put it up. Yeah. So this one, basically, I go to this thing.

And there's the rooms keep escalating. And I'm not, I basically take the part of like, I'm not doing any of it. And the agent that invites me comes up and says, a slow drip is better than a flood. And he's saying, you start here and you do every single room. So when it gets to treachery, you did the slow drip. It's not going to feel like anything. So if you don't engage in the activities of every room, he knows you're not going to do it. And the room before treachery, there's a line and they have every single holy book, Bible, Quran, and so on.

And they say say which one is yours and they hand they put the book out they put a symbol on the front of it and they say repeat these lines after me i am my own god i bound i bowed in nobody but myself i'm sorry what is this this is in the story this is your fake story yeah all fake yeah where the fuck you call this i was like wait am i gonna have to repeat this just sitting back there going bro wow it's insane it's about the lines i'm telling you like when i'm thinking about i'm like what would be the creepiest shit if someone says holds you your book the one that you believe in what that was

so good like the thing that the one that you're like i live by this i live by this book and they say put your hand on it and say i bow to no god i bow to nobody but myself you know what i'm saying yeah and basically you're what you're saying is you're pulling away your attachment to God. And whatever happens in this room, you're willing to do because you bow to nobody but yourself. So you're willing to do it. You want to buy it. The way I took it, tell me if I'm right or wrong here, is that it's like you want the fame. You want the things that come with it.

You're going to worship the money, which is us. I am the false idol. Right. It's like you want the fame, you want the things that come with it, you're going to worship the money, which is us. I am the false idol. It's me. I have no connection to anything else that is higher than me. It's me. Anything that I do in this world, in this life, has no consequences. And doing that frees you from the burden of those consequences. You know what I'm saying?

That's the biggest issue with society nowadays. Yeah. Everybody's like, oh, I'm an atheist. I can do whatever the fuck I want. Exactly. Exactly. And they're out of touch. There's atheist. I can do whatever the fuck I want. Exactly. Exactly. And they're out of touch. There's my boy Danny Jones when he was here in August. I took him to Epstein's. We were just standing there.

And we're standing across the street. And he's just watching people, you know, like bike by and shit, walk by. And he's like, do these people know what this is? I'm like, no, they don't know what it is. But it's such a, you haven't been there? No, no. It's inside. Knock on the door. But it's such a – you haven't been there? No, no. It's creepy. It's very weird.

Like it's – I'm like used to it but you're like, damn, there's some history that happened there and it wasn't good. Imagine being my mom knowing she went to grade school. I know. This was his apartment? Yeah. So this was – the apartment in New York, he had six places, right? So he had New York. He had Palm Beach. He that that commune in ohio what

the hell was it called what's the name of that town it's the place like wexner bill it's really rich and then he had the zorro ranch in new mexico he had the island in fucking the caribbean and then he had an apartment in paris and then i guess guilin had some apartment in london but this place to your point creepily enough was a little girl's school before he had it and it was originally built for the founder of macy's but before it was finished he died so then the school it was turned into a school school gets bought by les wexner les wexner then puts it into some estate or whatever and transfers ownership to epstein i think in 96 but he started living there in like 92 and then he did what he did in there and this is like i've

shown you the google maps of it you see all the townhouses next to it and you think they're all like oh they're they're all big too they're all similar size and they are big his goes all the townhouses next to it and you think they're all like, oh, they're all big too. They're all similar size. And they are big. His goes all the way back though. Like it goes all the way – like theirs is like – I'm going to make up square footage right now. Theirs is 10,000 square foot. His is 28,000 square foot or whatever. I think it's more than that.

But like it's just such a creepy fucking place. How do you know all this? I mean I've been there, my guy. They don't break that they don't work out of the door but you google it and you're like no this is the entire story just how did you how do you know all that there's some documentaries there's a lot i'll i'll show you inside of that apartment above a fireplace and correct me if i'm wrong about the placement of it he had a portrait of george bush throwing airplanes at i don'm wrong about the placement of it. He had a portrait of George Bush throwing airplanes at towers.

I don't remember where the placement was, but he did have that portrait. Yes. There's two paper airplanes at towers. Almost like before 2001? Well, we think he had it after. Yeah. But it was almost like the feeling you get from it

is like he had this in here displayed in his apartment as if he had blackmail on him. Yeah. It was almost like a flex flex and then the other one there unless you see the bill clinton one this one we know was hanging like right in there when you walk in he had bill clinton in monica lewinsky's dress pointing that nah that's crazy right like that's not like i own you bitch like nah that's so nuts wait go back to george george which one

yeah this is that where the kind of funny. Where are the Twin Towers? They're the Jenga. They're gone. How crazy is that? Who painted these? Oh, actually, we know who it is. Yeah, click the New York Post one. It says that.

Right to the right. Yeah, yeah. It says the name of the artist in this. Mike Spear and me pulled this up in 2021. Go down. What's the name of the artist in this. Mike Spear and me pulled this up in 2021. Go down. What's the name of her? A woman who visited Epstein. Damn it.

Who's? Wait, go up. Go up, Alessi. Yeah, Petrina Ryan-Klein. That's it. Yeah. And he would go pick up young girls around art shows and stuff, too. Like, he was just a, dude, he was a sick

sick fuck. I gotta dive into more Epstein. I have another one for you. Yeah, let's go. Ready? I'm into this stuff. I'm a story guy, but I'm into this stuff. I don't talk about it anymore, but a lot of the old content, my YouTube shorts don't perform well because I did an in-depth

breakdown of Hunter Biden. And since then, they do not perform well because I did a short-depth breakdown of hunter biden and since then i do they do not perform well because i did it short form onto youtube that's so interesting you guys both deal in a space where like you fear getting shut down because he's making drinks yeah i'm like i've never had that happen i respect him because he's continued down that road that happened to me and i was like oh so they actually do this and i did a big breakdown of hunter biden and like that have you seen the tattoos on his back that was the freakiest part to me what is no oh he has tattoos on his back of the finger lakes and if you look up the finger lakes look up hunter biden finger

lakes tattoo and then they show where it is demographically come on and that apparently is a hub for human trafficking around those lakes really yes what oh i'm sorry i'm sorry my bad what was i not supposed to say that no you can say whatever you want like is that real i don't know i mean we're looking at we're looking at the same thing a selfie of him. That's where they're doing human trafficking, in the middle of the country? Maybe I went down the wrong rabbit hole. I feel like they'd be taking him to the Port of Elizabeth. That's a lot more.

That's New York. That's what I'm saying. Bring him right across the Atlantic. No one knows. I actually went to a wedding in New Jersey in a really odd, sketchy, rich area that I wow this is weird I forget exactly where it was but it was years ago, but I remember being there I'm like this is really beautiful here This is for the hyper rich, but there's oddly not many people around like on these estates around these lakes But that just because I'm conspiracy why did he get that tattoo? I don't know this that's actually the first I'm hearing about that

Unless he's right on it finger lakes human trafficking okay explore the secret tunnels network underneath son of a bitch there you go click that first one the travel here we go it seems like i love where this podcast went you thought we were talking about stories i i watched a little bit of your content i knew where i was going all right explore the secret tunnels all right go up go up alessi i want to read the actual explore the secret tunnels network underneath finger lakes what happens in the dark passages underneath the finger lakes take a tour of the tunnels and find out. All right, now go down. Finger Lakes region played an important role in the Underground Railroad. That's interesting. So that was... It started positive, took the wrong turn. Provided safe passage for enslaved

people to escape to Canada in the 17th to 19th centuries. During Prohibition, the Finger Lake tunnels were used to smuggle alcohol in the United States, also positive, making the region a hotspot for speakeasies and rum running from 1920 to 1933. While there are rumors and conspiracy theories about illegal activities happening in the Finger Lake's tunnels today, access to them is private and recommended for exploration due to

and not recommended for exploration due to safety and security. You're going to be down there with a flashlight saying so our next story. Do you hear a little scream in the background? Dude, the amount of views. So it is claimed that there are secret tunnels, prohibition.

Okay, go down, go down, go down. Keep going. This is history. That's boring. Go down. Let's get to the good stuff. Finger Lake tunnels today. This seems too positive to say anything about. There are theories that trafficking goes on below the Finger Lakes. Watchdog groups monitor the area, sometimes to no avail.

Sometimes I do feel like what would be obvious is actually never where they do it. Right? Yeah. I just thought you'd like the topic. Yeah. Yeah. But is that a real tattoo? He has that?

Yeah, it's so cool. How crazy is that? That's sketchy, man. Yeah. That's odd. I mean, you know. That was some biblical shit when he started porking the wife of his brother. He's a little off if you're doing that.

Did you watch all the videos that they released to him? I sure did. Oh, yeah, of course. They're hilarious. Bro, I swear. You are going to think I'm lying to your face. He walks up into a corner. We actually can't show these because they all have drugs in them.

We can watch them. Not on camera. Oh, damn it. Yeah, no, we shouldn't do those. We shouldn't do those. We'll show you after. This is all you need to know. Imagine he is a TikToker setting up his phone to hit a TikTok dance.

But what he's actually doing is propping it up in the corner, ass naked, going into a sensory deprivation take, hitting a crack pipe and laying down. Oh, I did see that. I saw that. How crazy is that? Yeah, I saw that. Have you ever seen the meme that says like normal people when they go to drink, Hunter Biden whenever he goes to do crack and it's got like a thousand GoPros on it? Yeah, I did see that. What a fucking weirdo.

You know what? It's very sad because he is a full-blown I mean, it's a known, it's been a known thing for a long time. He's a horrible addict. We'll get away from this. One of our stories I am planning, I don't know the whole narrative of it yet, but you're going to know what it's about

when I tell you the setting and we don't really have to go into it too much. Let's give a preview. We're exploring the northwest side of the country, Washington kind of area, just in that area, and we come across an odd gathering in the woods that has an owl statue.

Oh, Bohemian Grove. Get your stuff, Claudio. I go to Bohemian Grove all the time. It's fucking great. It's not that bad. I just looked to Bohemian Grove all the time it's fucking great it's not it's not it's not that bad I just looked up Bohemian Grove

only because Ryan Garcia is going off oh yeah which I think is all fake yeah I mean to feel for the guy he probably has CTE

he looks like he's all fucked up now he's probably on drugs but you know do I think he's that's it that's the hell though yeah so I'm trying to figure out

how I could fit that into a narrative where we come across but it's very similar to the society so I trying to figure out how I could fit that into a narrative where we come across. But it's very similar to the society, so I have to figure out something else with it. What is this, though? This is real. I mean, depends who you ask. You ask Richard Nixon, he's going to give you an interesting quote.

Or you ask people that go, they're like, oh, we go there, we do plays, we drink and have fun. It's a nice men's club. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely some secrets of the world, you know, in those types of places, you know? Yeah, we just did one that's dropping on Wednesday. It's not finished, but it's going to drop Wednesday about us,

me and Sam actually, me and my boy Sam, doing the Appalachian Trail. Yeah. And there's some trail angels that are acting a little bit. Some what? You know what a trail angel is?

I'm from Jersey. I've been on two hikes in my life. Yeah. A trail angel is usually, if I were to generalize it, is an older woman that likes to do trails, that wants to be very kind to people that she passes, and she gives them food and drinks. That's usually what it is. Is this like the plot of Little Red Riding Hood? Yeah, something like that.

And when you're like an active, like you do trails a lot, people give you like trail names and stuff. So you have like an alter ego when you go onto the trails and people are nice and there's trail angels that give out gifts. But we painted these two trail angels, it's like, man, they're a little bit odd and they're acting a little bit too euphoric. And they look like they're on a party drug,

the way that they're looking around, the way that they're like touching and like they're not regular trail angels. And then they track us and they keep following us and they try to slip us stuff. And then it goes into like feral people of the appalachian mountains but not how you'd expect it this isn't out yet no it drops wednesday what is your i know you forget a lot of them what's your favorite video you've made superstition mountains was good

oh yeah i watched that one superstition that was the one in arizona yeah we uh so apparently that one real no absolutely god absolutely not. God damn it. No, no, no, no, no, just, just,

it's just writing. It's just writing and performing. Okay. It's, uh, but we have to research these things extensively, you know? So we find,

uh, we find the superstition mountains, which is a mountain range in Arizona where, uh, apparently there used to be a gold mine there and people would pull gold out of the mountains and things of that nature and then me and my friend abdullah uh go there and as a bit we're like hey we're gonna kind of look for the gold mine we're not actually looking for it we're doing it as like a boy like yo we're gonna find this shit while we're out here hiking

you know like look that's a clue you know uh and a dude on his deathbed gave like clues to where his mind was who is the uh the dutchman i forget his actual name but they called him the dutchman it was the dutchman's mind mine and as we're going things happen where we see like fool's gold and we kind of start to get that greed it's all about the entire story is about greed and how people turn on each other for money so by the end of it we think we saw fool's gold and the ranger that's guiding us or that the trail guide that's guiding us is telling us like dude that is pyrite that is fool fool's gold. Like that has no value. Please don't actually try to follow this.

And it's this, we're trying to convince this guy that we're not actually looking for the gold anymore. But me and Abdullah both think like we saw the gold. We're actually going to get it. And greed overtakes us. And we're, it's a whole, like we're trying to convince him to keep going and keep going towards these. And then there's other supernatural things that are going on, defending the mind or things

where you get lost in there. At a certain point, me and Abdullah turn on each other and then it's, it just, it's greed overtakes us and then we eventually get out. But it's,

it's all about greed. Everything has, all the stories have a theme. Yeah, you have a, you have a clear. Yeah. Society was about morality. Society was about being a good person

and being in touch with a higher power and not like praising yourself for everything that you do. Like know that like everything you do here has consequences. And even if you don't believe in the afterlife, it has a consequence of who you are. Like you're tainting your heart. You got to keep your heart clean. Like your heart is like a mirror.

You have to polish it. When did you start to think about this? I had, I took, I tore my labor in my hip doing jujitsu and I had surgery. And I was taken away of everything I enjoyed. And then I took like a SARM to try to, a SARM is like a, almost like a, it's almost like TREN. To try to build muscle back. Don't point at me, I'm not on TREN. Just to be honest. Like TREN?

Similar to that because I couldn't get, I couldn't heal. Like my body wouldn't heal, it just had this traumatic thing that was like you can't do the things you love anymore. So I took, I was taking substances to try to get back to who I was instead of just sleeping and healing. And at the same time I was taking substances to try to get back to who I was instead of just sleeping and healing. And at the same time I was taking that, I took like an energy drink and I had a major, major like anxiety attack. And I thought I was having a stroke.

And I was stuck in like a six month period of my life of like pure depression. Like I can't explain it. It was like, everything was low right after this horrible anxiety attack that happened in the middle of COVID where I can't go and do anything or see my friends. I don't have, I don't have a job. So I'm just stuck at home. This thing happened. It's four feet of snow in Chicago. I can't go to the doctor. And every 10 minutes, my heart is getting to 160 beats per second. And I'm like, I'm going go to the doctor. And every 10 minutes, my heart is getting to 160 beats per second. And I'm like, I'm going to die. So I literally like, then those questions, morality start coming. So that's the answer. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you strike me as a guy through

the writing. I guess both of you in this case, you know, you're like extremely well-read. So it was interesting when you said early on in the conversation, like you just cared about sports, fighting outside with all the dudes on the Facebook mashups. extremely well read. So it was interesting when you said early on in the conversation, like you just cared about sports. Yeah. Fighting outside with all the dudes on the Facebook mashups. Yeah. Like growing up. But I feel like, and you could attest to this too, you train, fighting completely correlates with being a good person.

Yeah. Yes. It is like when you're surrounded by people who are capable of extreme violence. Yes. It's, you immediately feel like you guys are the barrier between the innocent and the bad. It's the idea of knowing if you had to, you could. Like I wasn't jujitsu. I was born with dislocated hips and I have two blown out shoulders.

So I was, I was a boxer, right? Yeah. But I trained around guys who were pros. Some, one of my friends, like one pro was really good. And there is something there that like they're the calmest guys in the room, a lot of them. Not all of them. Sometimes you run into a dude who's always looking for action. But they're like that because they know what they can do. And so everything – it's almost like the training itself pulls them back to zero and everything else is then. I also think growing up where I grew up and just situations I've seen and things I've been around and things I've done.

I wasn't positive I was a good person. Does that make sense? Sure. And I had to choose to be. You had to choose to be. I had to choose to be a good person. What made you think you were a bad person? You do bad things.

You've never done something bad? Sure, but what kind of bad things? Fighting, hurting people, being incredibly – like when you're young and you don't think of people as people, things I've said to my parents, the way I've treated people, which is very selfish. Just very dismissive, zero empathy. Because you're young and immature.

How did you combat that? Five years of sobriety showing up for communities every day. I've proven who I am. Does that make sense? Yeah. The only thing you can do is be the good person tomorrow. And forgive yourself do you think some of it though is is a it's an averaging out and what i mean by that is you know even today like once in a while you know you may get short with someone that's a bad thing yeah like we all do we all do things that are

wrong yeah but like if we are far more good or far more looking out for the right reasons for our fellow people, be it family, friends, whatever, that kind of balances. 100%. Right? Yeah, yeah. No, I don't think, I just don't think anybody is inherently good or bad.

I feel like every man, especially men that's like capable of incredible violence needs to be very aware of what's going on in him. Yes, absolutely. Because the consequences are so much higher. So you have to really look at all the factors in your life of like, I'm the pillar of this. I could do something very bad or I could do incredible good. And you have to do it every day and you have to polish your heart every day. You know what I'm saying? Yes. Yeah. No, I, I, I, this is the kind of thing that I think you're naturally, you don't, I mean,

I'm sure some people do, but you don't really think about this when you're like 20 years old. No. Right. If there's something that happens when you get past like age 25, where you start to realize like, oh, maybe you're now far enough removed from college or high school. The world is real. You got bills to pay, you know you're succeeding or fit most likely more

failing and you start to then think about your your place and and i always thought like well you know i've only ever lived between my years maybe that's just like me doing that and then i talk to more and more people over the past five six years and they'll have like even if they had different conversations with themselves they'll have similar moments around a similar time where like you just start bringing all that in but i will say like the fact that you're only 27 years old and you speak of things from the perspective with which you do and you also have a long-term track record already of being the person you are and the worker you are and things like that you got a great beautiful relationship as well that's winning in life right like that's that's really that that's that's really impressive man yeah you should be proud of that it's uh it's just

i mean i wish i could tell we all do that you know i'm saying i look around this room and i see dudes with like like you have goodness in your eyes you've chosen to be good you too you guys have good energy him too i can't see your eyes over the computer but i could see yes uh you know i just i think it's very important and i think i struggled with it a lot and i think it actually goes into the storytelling because i think of bad shit of how like how what is the worst thing that could happen how what is what is the choice here that's good who am i giving who am i giving that choice to in this in this time i usually don't give myself the good choice i let myself be the person that comes to a short, immature answer, and I give the right choice to a different character.

You or Jess? Who's doing the giving there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just like there's just lessons. I guess that is the art of being a storyteller. It's like there's different perspectives to everything that happens to you, and you need to come at it with the right perspective you know and i'm lucky i had good influences like uh being in judicial schools you know it yeah there's good dudes there yeah there's good men there and i

was just surrounded by it since i was 18 where every single person that comes on the mat is the leader in their in in their life and i'm talking to grown men when i'm 18 and they're here and i'm here every day sitting on the mats after for hours they're telling me how to be a man so it's just putting yourself in those situations opposed to putting yourself in bad situations like I didn't go to college I went to college for two weeks I had a cup of coffee and I left what made you leave uh the I took a psychology class where of course you did I had to I had to surprise yeah there was like five options um and one of them still was psychology and the the teacher said a mandatory mandatory book that we had to purchase

was her book and it was about her daughter's first period come on and I was like your quacks yeah and then I went to mine and I was already right there I was like all right I'm pretty much done but I have two more classes for the day maybe the next class will go good it was piano class and I walked into the room and I was like

I don't see any fucking pianos and they had us download an app on our phone nah out and play on here and I'm like okay so that's a little silly right

did you go to Phoenix University I went to Glendale Community College you went to South Harmon yeah right Institute of Technology that's a great that's a sleeper I know and then I went to Glendale Community College. You went to South Harmon. Yeah, right. Institute of Technology. That's a great experience.

That's a sleeper. I know. And then I went to my next class, and it was a high school algebra class because my tests going in didn't do all my English tests. Fantastic. Don't tell that. But math, they're like your high school level. And I'm like, I'm not even high school level. But I went in and I studied for four hours, and we had a test. I uh she was like you got a 42 and I was like damn that's not good

that's not great and she was like it was 42 out of 250 and I was like okay yeah I studied for four hours I put my I really tried and I didn't do it well and I was like well I think I'm done and then I left I never went back it math is one of those like crazy crazy things where if you don't have a math mind you're you're banging your head at the wall hoping it breaks like there's no hope at certain points I did notice and I I don't have a like I have a hate for the school system for sure um I went to Chicago public schools it's the worst it's so so so bad there was like 5,000 kids in my graduating class holy shit like my every class I had had like 45 to 60 kids in every class.

That's insane. It was a jungle. It was crazy. Every single day was crazy. It was fun though. I'm sure. And luckily after my sophomore year, we got a new principal

and he kicked out every bad kid of the school. So my senior year was amazing. So fun. But it was just wild. And so I have hate for the school system in that way but i did have a lot of really great teachers so i don't fully hate interesting yeah like history i noticed it was hard to be a great teacher with 60 students sitting in front of you age 14 yeah english teachers and history teachers like i noticed a pattern that they're actually

teaching us stuff and they're pulling up cool shit and actually teaching us about the world you know why why because they tend to be it's not always this way but my experience they tend to be the more creative people really yeah yeah um yeah storytelling story creating and the history i love history yeah exactly big history i can tell you are and that's what i'm saying history is stories yeah right there's a there's a creative endeavor to that. Technically, everything's history. Something we did yesterday is history now. Yeah.

Right? So at least like it's funny you say that because like when I think of my best teachers over the years, there were other subjects where I go into but like consistently. Yeah. Yeah. Those are two classes. I had some fucking good ones. Yeah. History.

Yeah. It was – I always joke with her. I'm like when I have stress dreams, it's not about the everyday life that we have i have stress dreams that a foreign government is like going it like coming and oppressing us and i'm fighting our way out of it like i don't i know i know you think i'm crazy you think i'm crazy john's like yeah i was thinking about that on the way in myself. I got to up my dream game up, man. It's good. I'm weak.

It's like with me, kid. Fuck. Can't take the kid out of Wayne, you know? Jesus. She'll be like, I had this dream about this. And it was like, you know, like a regular bad dream of like something bad happened in her life. And I'm like, I was carrying you out of a house and there was communists. And I wake up and I'm like, well well i'm really happy i live in here and then i get really happy because we get to

live our life and then but all like free time it's stories and then fear of oppression i know that's what i that's what i mean by like i'm going over scenarios in my head constantly and even when i'm sleeping did you have like experiences learning about or living under in some way? Oppression? No. My parents were very like do whatever you want. Right. That's how it seems.

Yeah. I don't know. You feel oppression like on a day-to-day basis? Feel oppression? Fear. Fear. Yes. Every day.

Really? Bro, I think about foreign entities on a daily basis infiltrating our beautiful American way of life. Can I ask you something? Yeah. And maybe this is just like no-brainer. Like thinking about it can't fix it even if it happens. No, but you can be prepared.

Can you? I don't know. That's a fair question. Like that's my whole thing about even conspiracy theories. You're asking yourselves questions to like, even if you have the answer, you don't know if it's going to be ever the answer. And so like you're prepping for what?

And look, the reality is if America wanted to take you down as a government, your little pistol that's sitting in your cabinet is not going to save you. You know, like I don't know what else to tell people. You know, that's sort of my thing. I think your risk to reward ratio when it comes to like the bunker folk just doesn't seem accurate. You're so right. I would, if I could leave it behind me i would right and that's why my and we have everybody has like irrational fears and anxieties they just can't let go of you wish you could yeah i try to not think about it i try not to think about it it's just something that i notice is a consistent thing in my life and and it's like i don't know why it's like he's like what

do you think about it like But it's actually kind of good because I'm so happy all the time. That's right, because you're like, oh, thank God it doesn't. Because I'm like, we live in the most,

like, horrible places exist right now. Right. North Korea exists right now. And I know that this... Didn't you just see Yang Ming Park

in the airport? Yeah, we just saw her and we were like, oh my gosh, that's her, Yaomi Park. She's a North Korean defector.

Pull it up, pull it up. Pull it up. She was in the airport? We saw her. So she was on Rogan. She is a defector of North Korea. Very tragic story. Very well spoken. She's very, very smart. We had watched a bunch of her stuff

recently because I was teaching Jess about North Korea why should she should fear it deeply in her heart and uh by the end of it by that lesson we did it for like eight hours straight she looked at me she goes i love america no what did you say she said uh america america is great i love it here and i was like that and i was like that's how you should feel every day you really should yeah and you realize like foreign people know or feel that way more than we do sometimes. Yes. You know, the people that are like, the people that complain about this country are the ones that have really been outside of this country. That's right.

So like I know how you could see it. Like maybe it's like I'm like troubled by it. I'm so happy. You almost see it like the appreciative side of what you really are. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. It's like I rooted in gratitude on a daily basis i wake

up from a stress dream of nazis tearing down my windows and i wake up and it's beautiful sunlight a fresh cup of coffee my girl and my dog and we get to go work out in my basement and write stories and i'm like life's good it's a that's a really good because i sometimes struggle with gratitude and i'm like oh you know i'll run through Like, oh, thank you for my family and my life and yada yada. But maybe because I never put myself in genuine fear of what if I was living in North Korea? What if I had to worry about a bomb striking my, my building every day? Like those are realities for other people. Yeah. I tell her what, like one week out of the month, I have to go into like full man mode and just listen to horrible, terrible podcasts about oppression and fear and then i

feel better after wow yeah interesting and it helps give me some of these podcasts i want to start doing that oh you just got to look it up just literally just north korea yeah you could look up vlogs in north korea it's fucking crazy yeah north korea's i had wally green in here who so i started a conversation with my guy and the conversation started like this. I said, look at every major country in the world. They have influence from the world. She said, that's not true. Everything in our country was done by our great leader and this and this and that.

And I said, yeah, but, you know, your great leader has Western influence. Now I'm going into the yellow. You said that. It gets better. It gets better. How did she look at you when you said that? She gave me this look. She says.

He's an international professional ping pong player. And so he voluntarily went to North Korea. Like, how many years ago was that, Alessi? Like a decade ago? Yeah. There's video. I don't know if we can pull up the video on his YouTube. Go to Wally Green's YouTube page.

That's insane. Of him playing ping pong. But he's such a loving guy. Like, hey, everyone, be friends. And he had a crazy childhood and a horrible childhood. And he's just such a good guy. Go to Shorts. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right there, actually. But he went to North Korea. And he ended up being there for like five days. And just the way he talks about that experience and almost not getting out of the country and how the people are just dead to the world with their expression because they don't know anything else. He's like, oh, wow, they really actually don't understand how anything works because their world has just been shut off but at the end of this i think it was this match was this the one lse where he goes up and he makes sure he hugs the guy yeah go go to the end right there i bet they didn't like that he got well they actually the guy ended up having a huge smile the guy wanted to pull away and then he ended up having

a huge smile how do you like how do you feel about beating a guy like that? Watch, watch, watch, watch. He goes and he pulls him in and he's like, what the fuck? And then like, and then like, he was like, whoa. And afterwards people were actually in the stands cheering him. They started with boo, every, cause like American, no good.

And then they're like, oh wow, connection. Yeah. That's so interesting. Let me put some fear in your heart. They don't have, yeah, they don't have your heart. They don't have... Please. Yeah. They don't have a word. They don't have a word for me. You are not an individual there.

Yeah. They don't have a word for love. Like, I can't say, bro, I love you. They don't have that. I'm not allowed to love you. We have us. Us as a collective. Collective, yeah.

And we can love our government. They don't have words to build, like, individual connection. Wow. Do you, I mean, again, thinking out loud is like, imagine just giving one of them a compliment. How great they'd probably feel. No, they wouldn't get it. Yeah.

But like you see that, that guy loved what happened there. But then he like walked away. He's like, wow, what just happened? Right. He just took a little hug. He's like, wait, was that real? What was that feeling I just felt? Naomi Park said that when she first escaped,

she wanted to go back because she couldn't handle the decision-making or the individuality that came with being an American. She said, I would go back. It was so hard because the amount of bandwidth that it takes to make decisions on a daily basis, she was programmed not to do it. So she was like, if I had food,

if they gave me enough food to eat every day, I'd go back. Wow. Because it was so overwhelming for her. That's, again, there's like, there's the people that say, I don't want government involved with my life at all. But like there is structure to society for a reason.

And people telling you what to do is sometimes a good thing. That's a whole nother level though. Oh, not saying that. But there is like a middle ground here. That's insane that she even, that was a thought process of like, I would like it better over there. Yeah, because they make the decisions for you.

Yeah. And that's the thing too. Like growing up, if you don't know anything else, maybe they're just as happy as us. I don't – you would assume no. You know, but like how do we really – I don't think they know what happiness is. No. I think they've no – I mean I don't live in their brain.

But I don't think it's possible to have a concept of that if you don't have a concept of self. You know, happiness is based on a litany of factors in your life. But at the core of it, whether it be outward or inward, there is a basis of love to it. And if you are in a society where you are not even recognized, therefore the other person is not even recognized as a person as in other people around you there is no capacity to truly feel love you only feel fear that's why when you hear you know some of the dictators there's famous movie lines with this but there's famous historical lines with this where some of these tyrannical people will say would i rather be feared or loved and they'll say feared because then they can dictate who loves yeah right and that's that's such a fascinatingly really treacherous part of humanity where people can decide we're going to

take that from other people and they were born to take a shit on the earth the same way we were you know not on the earth but you know what i mean like we're all born the same but something changes based on where we're born and the opportunities we get from that so interesting i i think what like another reason i'm very interested in this stuff is because you get to see pure evil, right? You get to see a complete power and how it Manifests and the things that they do to control and the things that they do to manipulate people and usually bad people are manipulating people Right to do bad things like we do one about like a cult leader, right? How does the cult leader operate?

He operates the exact same way a communist leader operates. He takes away individualism. He teaches you, he gives you a false idol, which is him. That's right. Right? And then he,

like there's certain rules that take away choices. And you see everything evil all has the same guidelines and it all is just pulling you away from the same thing. And it's just very, I don't know,

it helps me with writing because we get to add details about really powerful historical leaders that did horrible things to a small guy who's like a cult leader in the Appalachian Mountains. And he's operating the exact same way as like an early Stalin or early Hitler did. And the people, they don't know the historical base of it but it adds so much more um it's so much heavier because even though you don't know where it's coming from you can see how that would work right you feel me it almost makes it easy to understand yeah yeah yeah you ever seen this channel the byline no so this is my boy jamal we just had him here actually and that was you want to talk about doing the right thing with stuff where you know you pay forward with people when i had the the high school

kid george in here fucking awesome he does his podcast just reaches out to these people around the world and like sometimes they hop on he had had this guy on his podcast before he ever showed his face on on youtube he just started showing his face it was always a faceless channel and so we're in here talking about it on i had george come here to record his podcast where i was a guest and he brought this up i'm like i want to get this guy in here this is a great idea and he fucking got him here and so jamal was here for a couple days he is such a fucking interesting guy but he has made videos where he's going to do some history some some real history now too, but it's always been, he breaks down the psychological evil of pop culture. Holy shit. Yeah. And also by the way, side note here, some of the style of his channel, I want you to look at too for like the B-roll.

He's a genius with B-roll. Okay. And like, if you had some of the stuff he does, your subs are going to like quadruple overnight like for sure but like the way that he delves into how these people think like we're talking about fake people but they're creative from the minds of real people which means there is an existence of these traits in the world so so cool dude john they're addictive i want to watch the tony soprano you know what's interesting i mean i i could see why everybody that we've pulled up that has like a popular video is from like three years ago. I've yet to see, even like when I do my own research on YouTube channels, I haven't seen anybody that's like blowing up now, which is interesting.

Yeah, it's more spread out because there's more creators too. Right. Like nowadays, the landscape is so, there's so many people in it. Who do you know now that's like they're taking off at this moment? Well, a part of it's also the name of the game being consistency, right? So if you're putting like he's putting out his videos are doing good views every time. Right. So he's getting better and better at it.

He's going to expand what he does. And then, you know, you'll be pulling this up a year from now. And suddenly the top three videos will be from the last three months. That's just kind of how it goes. It's interesting. And again, analyzing from this perspective, like you see his top eight three of them are shorter and then yeah he doesn't have a length four of them are shorter but then the other ones he makes are no but if you saw those recent ones he's making them like a little bit longer this guy will sit down he takes fan requests right

so it's not like he's seen everything if someone requests a tv character it is a requirement he has for himself he will sit down and watch the entire series really sometimes like one and a half times because he's got to go back to take some new notes but like where does he find the time he's a he's a savage dude he's so smart and he's so locked in on what he does and like he knows what he wants in life and he also he's also very and you'll hear this on the podcast when we put it out as a really fun podcast but he's very aware of his own flaws and his own psychological consequences of his upbringing he is one of the most self-aware people i've ever met almost to

a fault where like he said a couple things like when we were going to dinner afterwards where i'm like i actually think you're i think you're being too hard on yourself i think you're wrong about that right you know but he's just so he's in his head all the time because he's in these people's heads yikes it's crazy scary that's fucking nuts that good like the acting stuff where somebody like plays a villainous guy yeah um i've i've acted one time i was in a short film that my aunt produced and it was like in fact it was a film's anarchy aunt yes yeah so it was a pretty big production it was cool but i was like 19 you know so i didn't really know understand the weight of it um but it like kind of it was like it was a film Anarchy Ant yes so it was a pretty big production it was cool but I was like 19 you know

so I didn't really know understand the weight of it but it like kind of it was a I don't know how to explain it it was like it made me understand actors and how you have to

be in that scene as hard as you can and it's so physically draining and I always say like if I did acting again I would want to play an evil character I think it would be sick

depends how often you're doing it I wouldn't want to do it often I don't want to act often acting again, I would want to play an evil character. I think it would be sick. Depends how often you're doing it. I wouldn't want to do it often. I don't want to act often either. I don't particularly want to act. But it just seems cool to do like a piece of work that stays. You know, it's like movies don't go anywhere. YouTube videos you do, I do in a year I'll have 40 uploads that just bury this video. But if you do a movie.

Godfather's the godfather, bro. Right. Ever and ever. Our kids will know about it yeah there's i mean and that's that's the thing like the great actors and we always make fun of actors with some of their nuttiness and stuff and some of that's fair but like there's something that goes into you being you being able to do that thing tapping that thing you gotta be a little different yeah right like uh john berthal yeah yeah he's he's love love john love john i want to get Jon on the show. He's buddies with Ryan Tate.

But yeah, there's something different that goes into that. And you see a lot of these, even with some of the villain stuff, a lot of these guys are pure method actors. And it can drive them nuts. I mean, to this day, I'm fairly certain that's what killed Heath Ledger. Yeah. Because he went full method into the Joker. He became that guy. I mean, that's why I didn't want to, like, when I thought about being an actor in college pretty seriously, that's why I didn't want to do it.

Because I felt like for the first – I was telling you this the other day, Leslie. But I felt like when I was in college, I finally in the last few years come into my own where I felt comfortable just being myself. And it was such an addictive feeling. And then the idea of having to pretend to be other people for the next 40, 50 of my life yeah and the and the the method and the things i study that would go into that i'm like there's no way that'd be good for me there's no way that like i thought i'd be dead yeah you know there's there's just a there's a different element that goes into things like that yeah for sure i don't like the lifestyle of it i'm really big on routine i like routine i like having space to do what i want to do when i want to do it and i I feel like acting, I know, is hurry up and wait.

I don't like that. I know the lines. Let's shoot. Let's go. You know, like we write one time, then we go record, and we put it out, and we move on. It's such a good feeling, man. You know? Just I get to do what I want.

I get to sleep when I want. And then, yeah, we work really hard. I work 12 hours in a row. But then I work at my pace. So when you guys are sitting there writing, like you were talking about this a little bit earlier, but we got off it. So you said you wake up when you want. You fucking, whenever you wake up, you go work out. Do you get right in and do you start writing or do you have like an order to the day where, oh, we're going to film something first today?

Depends what we finished last night. Totally depends. Totally depends. If we have content that we are ready to record we'll do that right after we work out i'll drink protein shake i'll sit down i'll go um if we don't have anything then we and we don't have any concepts we'll take the day off and we'll go watch stuff and get inspiration and you know and what and jess is off off mic right now but when you're you were talking about this too i think when you're doing the recording jess are you still writing it down there you can come up to leslie's mic right here

so we got you sorry we we had a full studio today are you doing like the writing while he's doing it or are you helping him act it out how does that usually go like when he's actually recording i help him act it out? How does that usually go? Like when he's actually recording? I help him act it out. We write everything before. So there's no writing going on during. Okay. Yeah. So you're, you may, cause your tonality is so like well done and it doesn't switch in and out lines. So you're keeping him balanced on that. Like, okay, he just had a reaction line. So I need to get that out of them to get the next line to sound similar to that. Is that, does that make sense? No, I would say she does more continuity during the writing process, and then she does what Alessi does.

She produces. Gotcha. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. And then once it's done, it's just like, we kind of know, because I'm writing in my voice, so I know the parts. Because not only do we write it in my words, lay down on the floor and she types it and i speak out loud why you lay on the floor uh because my back hurts if i sit too long okay

john's the most comfortable man in america yeah literally it's like i want to train tomorrow so i don't want my back to hurt and then sometimes sometimes it's so stressful to because like if you think about it's like, I want to train tomorrow, so I don't want to go back to hurt. And then sometimes it's so stressful, too. Because if you think about it, it's a 25-page story. And that is daunting when you're on page two. How long is, for you, at your speed, 25 pages, how long is that video on YouTube? An hour? An hour.

Yeah. 17 is about 45. That's a lot of reading out loud. Now, reading it in your mind, of course, you do that of reading out loud now reading it in your mind of course you do that but like out loud yeah but like when you when you're laying on the ground though like are you still like are you down here like like i'm laying on the ground and i'm tired i'm like yes this are you still like so then i took him into the superstitious balance and then he got fucked up over there and then one or is it like no it's a little bit it's a little bit more calm but i'm saying the lines in a way that it's it's

just everything's turned down 50 wait so i know prep the filming yeah because i don't want to just sit and write because writing doesn't come out the same way your voice right so she's literally word for word whatever you just said exactly because you can't do it at the same time so i could say the tonality and even sometimes i notice that something's a bit too much of a tongue twister i'd be able to write it out fine, but I can't say it. You can't say it. So we're like, all right, let's change this. Because I get to say it one time.

I'm like, that works. And when you say something out loud, you feel it a little. So I'm sorry for cutting you off. So when he just paused, when he says something out loud, would you put like dot, dot, dot? And then you feel a little bit when you type it out for him? Sometimes. Or I'll just space. Just like start a new thought new thought okay so he kind of knows where to pause and that's interesting

because she's operating where it's where she could relate to me as best as she can so i let her map it out the way that she her mind works like the way she organizes it i'm not gonna be like hey make the document how i organize it no make the document how you do. So I say it, she organizes it properly, she delivers it, and then I put the spice on it. What a cool way to work. What made you think of doing that? The pressure cooker that that Stairs story did on TikTok. We had to drop a story, four minute video of a narrative that we didn't know where the story was going every single day. That's amazing. And did you volunteer like, hey, I'll type out what you're saying to make things easier? Or you asked her? My body was falling apart from editing for so long.

So I was like, my body hurts. And I just started laying on the ground. And it was 12-hour days. And at the time, we didn't have the studio in our basement. We lived in one bedroom in my parents' house. And we had to weave our way through a big active house and then get to the studio that's not in a good neighborhood, slip into the front door so nobody sees us go in. And then we're in the studio where we have to, when we order food, it's an issue

because we can't see anybody, like nobody could see in when we reach out. Like, it's just like, it was this pressure cooker for we didn't have much time to get this done. And we had to get, we had to figure out where the story was going, what the cliffhanger was. And everybody's like, please tell us, like we need the next part.

And I'm like, I don and i'm like i don't know i just don't know this is a lot man yeah this is a lot going on here yeah i told john this is gonna be like i'm just stressed out dude holy shit and we did john's going home going dad you're fired yeah somebody else this is we need to be doing more shit i don't know what it is but we need to do more so you're telling the story twice one time for her to write it down yeah second. Second time. Yeah. All in one day.

So like at that time. You can work it out. Now we finish it ahead of time. Luckily, because we actually, because and mind you, we were poor. I'm talking poor. Like I, we didn't have, all my money went to the studio rent. So it's not like, and I was still working, you know, like, oh, at that time I had just finally quit.

But so we actually had every day to do it. But we didn't have, it's not like we're like, oh, the convenience of spending a lot of money on food here. The convenience of just like getting an Uber here. It's like we are in the situation where something is popping off. We're not getting paid for it until next month. We haven't made any money yet. And we have 5 million people demanding the next thing. And we have about eight hours to do it. And we have to do and drag it out as long as we can, because it's all about attention. Like how can we get to a million? So our life changes. So it was this absolute pressure cooker of where nothing in life was going how we wanted it to yet.

And we had the opportunity to change it in a month. And we locked in. And we did it. But you're also doing it with original shit. And what I mean by that is, similar to what we talked about maybe like an hour ago, there are people who just have to follow trends. And then there are people who make a fucking drink with their dad

and say, well, this is fun. There are people who are like, ooh, I'm going to make up a story make a fucking drink with their dad and say well this is fun there are people who are like oh i'm going to make up a story that is wild that unleashes all my creativity and it's different there's i don't i've never seen a page called story boy or something like that like that's totally original to me right and then people gravitate towards that so the irony is that in this world where we're all playing catch up with everyone go what are they doing so we can do it too when you are original and you actually have value behind that originality you can win yeah

and and it's not it's also being prepared for the opportunity right so yes i didn't know that this story thing was going to happen we had no idea that like what route we were going down i just knew how to edit i taught myself how to edit i taught myself how to build a production set i i put all of my extra money into a studio space kind of near my house and threw shit at the wall until somebody said, can you do that again for me? And then I was prepared to do it every single day because I had every skill to actually make it happen. I didn't need to outsource to an editor.

And he's like, hey, that's coming in two days. I didn't need to outsource to somebody for the design. I do all my graphic design. I do all my editing up until recently. So I was prepared. I just spent years learning for the opportunity. And then when the opportunity came, we had the skills and I had the support

from my lovely girlfriend to help me through that process to now we have a base and we actually have income and we have a career here. But it all came from literally five years of teaching myself everything for that one month. And I knew in that one month, we're like, we're not doing anything else. We're living and breathing this. And then after that, everything changed. I'd asked you, I'd asked you earlier about your influences and you talked about how it was really, like you said, you were just playing sports and stuff growing up, but like now that you're doing, you've been doing this stuff for a while and it does seem like you've talked about other social media people so you're looking

around to see see what people do is there anyone in the film space or the writing space or whatever space who you know you look at like oh wow they're doing great work from like a storytelling perspective uh we didn't know about this we didn't know about this guy but now we do because also mind you like i was talking about how i polish my heart every day i didn't watch horror movies i didn't watch that other than like history stuff i didn't i didn't take i didn't listen to music i wouldn't listen to bad music i wouldn't listen to anything that like put bad you wouldn't listen to music or bad music like music that is like put like pushing bad things into you like like rap and certain types i would listen to some rap but it would have to be from like a perspective of like there's a good message

in here i wouldn't watch horror movies i wouldn't take in anything that was like bad for me right bad for like my perspective like as a kid or like are we talking more adult last 10 years okay last 10 years so i wouldn't watch like scary spooky youtube videos i just happened to tell and it is like now i'm in like the spooky niche but it started with just like stuff that happened to me so i was just telling my experiences of life and then you get into this thing they were like oh we'll do something like this so i'm like okay maybe we watch something a little bit spooky so i had no idea who is in this niche and it turns out there's this one guy named mr ballin and oh yeah no no and everybody said

like we get comments now because we're like doing better they're saying like you're copying mr ballin no i didn't think who's mr ballin he's a big storyteller he tells uh missing 411 stories um he tells other people's stories he's really really good he does a green screen he's amazon exclusive now for his podcast i think right so some of it's Garden, but then he still has the full page on YouTube. And he's massive. And he blew up during COVID, so he blew up crazy, right? Former Navy SEAL too. People always love that.

Oh, wow. He's killing it. Crushing. Holy shit. So now if you look at my thumbnails, you'll definitely see some inspiration from him. Inspiration's fine. Yeah. I didn't know who he was until well after the Stairs story.

Because people were saying you remind me you look like a young mr ball and you remind me of mr ball and all this stuff and i i found him and like during the time when we were grinding i didn't have time to look people up we were just trying to write stuff and do the next thing and then when we finally looked at him i was like oh this guy's legit this guy's good and then you could see the psychology of the thumbnails obviously if something works use it right His thumbnail isn't great though. Like I can't even read. You know what?

I've always thought the same thing, John. But he was around early enough that the sizing of who he is, people got used to it. And they are already looking for the expression. And it allows the image that he's doing to breathe. I've thought about this a lot because it's a fair point. It's like today, if you were launching a channel today, I would not recommend it. Correct.

Yeah, yeah. But I'm jealous because I like that better. I would love it if none of our faces had to be in the pictures. We could just do the picture like Violin does. But yeah, like that's why it works. So once we looked at him, I was like, oh, I see the similarities. And then you see how he operates his YouTube. And you're like, okay, he did something like this.

And then he found this formula for YouTube. And we were searching for inspiration of how are we going to run our YouTube channel? Because I did a basic podcast attached to my stuff too. I would tell one story on top of a podcast. And then they're like, we only want stories. So I was like, oh, okay. So I have to completely rebrand my stuff. And this was a person, once I checked him out, I was like, oh, so this is a,

someone has already plowed this road. Yeah, he's gotta be killing it. Yeah, he's murdering it. But I wouldn't say I have, we get it. Like, I don't have any inspiration from him as far as like creatively, really. Just as far as, like his business side gives me a lot of inspiration.

But as far as like the actual content itself, not much. What is a good thing though? Like you're supposed to rinse, repeat things that work. You know what I mean? Like why wouldn't you? Yeah. If a system works,

use it, you know, are you now that, that I wish I never went to this party, which apparently you never did. Yeah. Now that's blowing up. I was thinking about this.

It's probably blowing up a little bit right now because people are out there looking for stories on this diddy thing. Yes have you looked at this lawsuit uh a little bit who's suing who oh i i love that you're here this is awesome i'm only speaking for the people that you know i'm playing a game diddy obviously you know p diddy he's he there's a guy long before i ever did this there's a guy who i i got a chance to know pretty well through my uncle who's like you wouldn't know who he was but there's a reason for that but he's easily like the most important person i've ever had a chance to know very nice guy always gave me the time and day when i had nothing to offer him which i really appreciate but he had told me

point blank years ago not what's in the lawsuit, but you know, this is what's going on. Like there's some shit. Like when you get invited around him, don't go. But this lawsuit comes out a couple, like three,

four or five months ago, whatever it was, sometimes maybe like the end of 2023, this lawsuit comes out from, I think it was a singer, Cassie or whatever, who claimed that, that there was a ton a singer cassie or whatever who claimed that that there was a ton of shit in there but she claimed that you know p diddy was abusive towards her

you can do the math on all that stuff had claims about his sexuality and things like that as it pertains to abuse across sexes like he's just like a nymphomaniac doesn't you know doesn't care doesn't care and then this these newer lawsuits are coming out and they're not being covered in the media very much but essentially diddy was running the music industry's version of an epstein operation but i won't give him as much credit for being like as sadistically smart as epstein p diddy is a moron but it's very sketchy and it was always sketchy to me that a guy who was essentially just a regular old new york gangster like young two-bit whatever suddenly got control of bad boy records

and immediately made it the biggest record label in hip-hop Overnight when he's like 24 years old signs notorious big and he's a moron I mean the guy is a stone-cold moron You're saying something's up something's up and when I would always look and I'd see you know Sometimes they'll do like I guess the more public parties the ones that this lawsuit they do like You know the montage videos on social media. And I'd see – they are sick. I'd see all these people showing up and I know some of those people.

I'm like there's no way they fuck with him. I'm like why are they going? But essentially, I'm really truncating it right now, but he had thousands of cameras. There were cameras on everything in every room, just like Epstein. There was blackmail. There are trails to other label executives and stuff like that that, you know, could lead to some espionage stuff. I don't know. Like, that's not really clear. But they are pushing this fucking thing under the rug about a guy who's been talked about in the industry as fucking crazy. So to pull it back to what you did like you did this beautiful like dante's i

don't know beautiful's word but this like imagery of like dante's inferno with this crazy like eyes wide shut party and whatever and i'd like to think that a lot of this stuff is just conspiracy brain internet getting out of control and i think a lot is but that like five percent that's real did you get to the end that's crazy yeah okay so the what we put into the end is oh so there's this one youtube video that i found like 10 years ago called military wife tells all have you seen that i have seen that yeah yeah it had like chesapeake was pulling that up i think it had like 10 000 views on it when i found it and the details of that how she goes about uh saying how they mess with people was so specific and so freaky and it's basically like imagine you know

you pissed off the right the wrong guy yeah and you go home and you go to turn on your tv and your your remote doesn't work and you pop open your remote and the batteries are switched from positive to negative and you're like what the fuck and you come home the next day and they're like that again. How do you tell somebody that? How do you tell somebody my batteries keep getting switched? Cause you're crazy. If you do, you go and run any errand,

you go back to your car and your blinker is hit down to like left turn. And every time you go in, your blinker is down. That type of stuff where only you would notice where if you told somebody that like somebody is following me, they're flipping my batteries, they're putting my blinker down but realistically somebody broke into your house multiple times and broke into your car multiple times how do you tell somebody that without them thinking you're schizophrenic that's right it's such a they know

they can use that you know what's so funny is i posted that as a reel and that specific part of me like telling that that part of the story they all say like this is clear paranoid schizophrenia hundreds of thousands of comments you are schizophrenic get some cameras damn that's right it's crazy it's crazy yeah and and we would think like in the camera world now it's impossible to miss some of this stuff but like it's not impossible yeah i mean epstein killed himself off camera like a mile from here did he you Yeah, yeah. I mean, but that's what I'm saying. Like, oh, the cameras didn't work.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. You know, like there's always a way, like powerful people can find a way to push some stuff over. But I'd like to see you re-explore that with your imagination, I guess. Yeah. We try so hard to put very real real stuff and like because that that thing of somebody flipping my batteries scares the shit out of me that would scare me so that's what we use you know like finding a staircase in the woods that is pristine and untouched and we're in the middle of nowhere that would scare me oh yeah the little things that that's the type of stuff we we

do like a sleep paralysis demon is that one i still don't know if i was dreaming that one's about a sleep like a sleep paralysis demon that you wouldn't be able you couldn't tell if it was uh like a demon following us or a uh a traumatized kid that lived in his childhood his childhood home that was actually a nun's house and you can't tell if it was him or the demon at the end but he said that he like he knew who the demon was he's just giggles he likes you he's fond of you but he then the kid crawls back into the crawl space at the end. And we're like, was it him or the demon? You don't know.

You feel me? So we try to do those. Like where it's like that would scare the shit out of me. And actually, the house that that story's based on is a house that I lived in in Chicago. That was an old nun's house. When we first moved to Chicago, it was like that. All right. There's some truth there.

Everything has a base of truth. It has a base of truth it has a base of truth yes I like that yeah alright well Dougie this has been awesome man you're doing a great job

with your channel you and Jess doing a great job there you go with your channel really enjoyed this conversation we're gonna put the links to your YouTube

your TikTok your Instagram all down below but I'm wishing you all the best man like I know this is really gonna keep going I appreciate that

you clearly have the mindset and you got the creativity too like that's that's the battle right there you guys are fantastic at what you do oh thank you this is super impressive this is the first collaboration i've ever done with anybody i'm so impressed you guys are really great guys this is like everything i wanted a collaboration with other creators to beat you guys a really high level and i appreciate you guys letting letting us go. I'd love to hear that, man. Yeah. Look, I think we got to spread the wealth and everything. You know what I mean?

That's what the community is for. So thank you guys for coming out so much. Yeah, of course. This was awesome. But everybody else, you know what it is. Give it a thought. Get back to me. Peace.

Thank you guys for watching the episode. Before you leave, please be sure to hit that subscribe button and smash that like button on the video. It's a huge help. And also, if you're over on Instagram, be sure to follow the show at Julian Dory podcast or also on my personal page at Julian D. Dory. Both links are in the description below. Finally, if you'd like to catch up on our latest episodes, use the Julian Dory podcast playlist link in the description below. Thank you.