Life Wide Open with CboysTV - Ben Tells His Life Story

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

In today's episode, Ben talks about finding his passion for dirtbiking at a young age, his business mindset, and how being young is no excuse . Follow us on Instagram @cboystv and @lifewideopenpodcast To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV For merch check out: https://cboystv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's everything you need to make a podcast in one point. Download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. Man, it feels good to be back. Feels good to be back. I'm so happy to be back, boys. I'm happy you guys are happy to be back. Ken, are you happy to be back? I'm great.

I'm so happy to be back. Thank God. So what do we got here? Cheddar in the hot seat? Yeah, Cheddar's in the hot seat. Are you sure you want to miss out on this episode, Ken? I've got about 400 sweatshirts to hold and send out. All right, Ken, you got a valid point there, and I'm not going to hold you too long,

but we did tear Ken away from his humble abode, the merch area. You bet your ass is not happy about it either. You did turn it all in the camera way. That's why I was good, though, Ken. You sparked up. You sparked up. So I am in the hot seat then? Yeah, Ben, if you didn't know.

No, I knew. I was just trying to mentally prepare myself for this. It's hard to. There's nothing really, you can really. do just come in with an open heart and an open mind that's the plan but i'm on scale of one to ten how how much you guys are going on me seven not really at all okay at most oh really yeah oh shit okay that makes me feel a lot better actually honestly it's kind of tough to go in on you oh i mean without being just mean i mean i wouldn't say so it's like can i stick around actually for the

rest of this podcast i'm sure ken has plenty of things to say before we let ken go we had a great weekend this weekend we had a very successful meetup thousands of people came thank you for coming out thousands of people came dude like that was crazy dude when i was crowd surfing and when we got ken crowd surfing that was one of those things where it's like you always see people doing it and you dream of that like man it'd be so cool to just get in a position to be able to have that opportunity and to be able to do it bro it felt as good as you would have thought i was terrified yeah ken i was gonna say you You really took advantage, or maybe you didn't take advantage. You were more so forcefully thrown into it, but...

At that point, I don't think there was a choice. Yeah, the whole crowd, there was, I don't know how many people. Thank you for inciting that. Yeah, that was lit. I don't know if I incited that. One of you four incited it. It was solely on me. It was only put on quick.

The whole crowd was big, God, Big God. How do you say no to that? It's literally impossible to say, no. What do you do? Why did you not love it? No, I was terrified the entire time. So you're telling me, Ken, if you get you to do just about, anything as long as we just have a crowd of like 500 people yeah yeah just behind us

shouting big god big i mean anything is a broad term at that point but i was like how do you say no at that point we'll we'll roll the clip over but like they were there was no way you're getting away getting out of that absolutely there's no no chance i could get away without doing it so it's what you call peer pressure but my favorite part was when you know crowd surfing part of crowd surfing is jumping it's it's like looking into the crowd going like yes i'm i'm going Honestly, that was the most terrifying part is like, But you did like a trust fall. Yeah, you know, you almost like laid down like you're laying like on a better

roses. Because I didn't want to like just like fall back and then just fall straight to the ground. I was down there to catch you, bud. Yeah, right. Hey, Ben, I was, I'm going to call cap on that one. Dude, I swear, you got to stop saying cap. He was. I was there, dude.

I felt your juicy ass on my head. I was holding you up, bro. I did have your back in that though Ken because I was like do not drop him do not drop him like make sure you get together and he did get dropped on your bad I lined it on my legs so it let him down yeah it was all good you'll hear it in the clip but Ryan just goes be careful he's a hero careful he's a hero oh you said that yeah well I

I tried when I was editing it I tried zooming in on Ryan's face in the background from a from a crowd view because you could just see Ryan going oh what was that what was that facial reaction dude like were you nervous or were you excited like I sat there and stared at it and I was like I can't tell what Ryan's vibe is on this I was nervous I was too I didn't want him to get hurt oh okay I was so pumped well Ken that was my favorite part about the whole weekend knock on I so big ups to you Ken yeah dude you've crowd surf and I have it I don't know why I didn't do it. I honestly, I was slightly worried.

I was slightly worried that they were going to drop. It was about the bare minimum amount of people that you could possibly have to crowd surf. Yeah. And it was everyone in between the ages of 10 years old to 65. And like women. Yeah. Yeah. It was like the strong looking crowd.

It was a strange assortment of people to crowd surf on. That's for sure. That was interesting. It was a good time. I didn't go into the weekend expecting that would happen. It was crazy. dude we stood in line for 10 hours straight and took pictures for all 10 hours we probably took over like a thousand pictures it was more than 10 hours it was like 11 or 12 it was crazy the merch

booth was popping and i think we successfully had the most people in our booth out of anyone else at heydays probably yeah obviously by two times like i'd imagine second year in a row we've done that and it's not and it was crazy it's not like oh we're doing a signing and then you get like a million people at your booth no it was just all day yeah the whole day morning till night so that was pretty cool to see we gave away uh as everyone was crowded around the truck when they went uh crowd surfing we gave away the pit bike he unfortunately wasn't there but he was close by everyone was yelling for a redraw which would have been pretty mean to him but yeah he ended up coming and that was pretty cool moments like that when the booth is popping how it was people in the industry

they can't help but just stand back and respect what is and it's like dude we totally came in and just like disrupted disrupted the market no brand like that in the industry i think has ever done what we did and what we're doing and it's starting to gain some traction and some respect which is cool to see especially when we're like out and about like the after parties and people are like the big dogs are coming up to us and they're like hey that was that was crazy that was really cool That does feel good. That feels really cool. So thanks to everybody who came.

I understand everyone can't make it because it's in Minnesota, but it was lit. So that was a good, good time. Moving on, Ben, how's that seat feeling pretty hot? Feeling very hot. Ken, can I let you get back to your merch holding? You got the warmers going on that thing yet? Oh, you look comfortable.

So that was all we had Ken here for. Well, I want to talk about it was crowd service. Okay, so we weren't going to just completely roast and toast me, and Ken was going to be like, oh, I've been waiting for this moment my entire life. I kind of want to stick around a little bit now. Do you want to? I'm down.

I'll stick around for a couple of minutes. Yeah, I'm like, we just unorthodox. Okay, Ken, get all your roasts out right now since you've got to get back. I got to get them thought out now. I haven't had a chance to think about that yet. It's pretty tough. I mean, well, we were planning on probably going in a... Ken, do you have anything you want to say about Ben's hot seat?

Good luck. That's it. I thought you had questions, bro. You were like, oh, I've had two minutes to prepare for this. Aren't you guys like best friends? I would consider us. but Ken wouldn't. I mean, it depends on the day.

Ben considers you guys best friends. Ken considers you guys enemies. Depends what he's done that day, I guess. Isn't it weird how, you know, just the duo, we got the oldest, largest, seaboy, and we got the youngest, smallest seaboy. You guys are like Tom and Jerry kind of. See, the thing that really gets on me,

it's like when you two get together and you just go full-blown troll mode. Well, everyone, no one's safe at that point, though, again. Like when you're, you're calling me up on what day? Was that Tuesday, Wednesday? Ben starts yelling on FaceTime. What does this have anything to do with me? I'm just throwing out an example.

Okay. You start, we're at FaceTime, and then you just put it on mute and just start talking there. Oh, that was actually pretty funny. That was pretty funny. I was like, what the fuck? Ken FaceTime me and I would just, I was talking and then I would just mute it, but keep talking. And Ken would just go, you Mike? I think you muted me.

You're on mute. I think you, hello? I think you muted me. Yeah, those good times. Good luck, Ben. Get out of here, Ken. Get out of here. Thanks, bro.

We'll be seeing you. Thanks, man. Introducing Ben's right-hand man, Ryan. Hey, Ryan, why don't you take a seat, man? So, Benjamin. It's your hot seat episode. Yeah. I suppose we might as well just get right into it, give the people what they want.

You know, in all honesty, going into this podcast, I was actually pretty excited because usually before, you know, we sit down and we come up with conversation topics. and you know this is the structure of it this is how we want to flow um but this one i get to just show up and talk about myself it is kind of nice you do love talking about yourself all right anyways uh so yeah this is your hot seat episode won't you tell us a little bit about just like your your early years growing up just to get us started like how early i mean birth what was it like i want to hear what was the first memory and then just go from there uh Some of my earliest memories was, you know how when you start doing stuff when you're like a little kid, but then it seems like nothing really seems like that crucial in the development of like your childhood until you like find that that thing that's like, oh shit, I found something I actually really enjoy.

I think back to my childhood being some of my like fondest memories were when when I like first got into dirt biking, honestly. and so at the time we lived in fargo which was like a city that's like 45 50 minutes from here and i had like a group of friends but i always felt like you know it's easy to like look back at it now and be like oh yeah it makes sense but i always felt like i i didn't belong in like a city like that and i could never really put my finger on like why but i always enjoyed coming out to the lake and doing things around the lake and it was right around that time that I got into dirt biking and that's when like my childhood started to go from like living in a city to the only things I cared about was like the small town living of like the dirt bikes on the weekends going out

in the boat learning how to like surf and ski and and like all the things that now consist of like our life and everything that we do for like our jobs like I think back to growing up finding like a passion in that at like a very young age and knowing like this is my thing yeah the the very first day uh i got a dirt bike i literally hated it dude it just sucks because i was way too small for it it was a ttr 90 can you hit us with the line my name is ben roth and i ride a ttr 90 so that was your first bike so that even that was too big for you yourself it was too big because i was always small growing up and uh but your dad took you to like Yeah, so we like got dirt bikes and, and I always wanted to to start riding a bike because

my older cousin, CJ, this douche canoe, and my brother had had dirt bikes and they got to go out to our grandpa's farm and ride and I was like, I was too young. So finally, my parents surprised me with a bike and we went up north in Minnesota and I learned how to ride it. Like the first day was like the worst day of my life. Like, when I think back to, like, days that I remember, like, oh, my God, I just want this day to be over with. That's probably top five. Wow, you've had a pretty good life.

I saw it super privileged saying that. But, yeah, it was just, like, way too small. I couldn't pick it up by myself. Yeah, you kept tipping over on yourself. You kept tipping over. You got kind of brought to a spot where it was a little bit more difficult riding for a kid that's on his first time riding a dirt bike. But then after that got a little bit easy. easier started to enjoy it a little bit more and then you know once you get the hang of it then

you start to enjoy things a little bit more and then once i did get the hang of it i was just like hooked like the only thing i cared about for like the next five years of my life probably actually the next like 15 to be realistic but uh yeah for like the next five years dude it's just dirt biking and snowmobiling yeah all i cared about yeah you've always been into like the motor sports yeah so before you were into dirt biking you know we were we really weren't that close until my my parents bought the place down at the lake and and we lived right you know a few doors down for each other yeah yeah um but i remember i wasn't like i didn't think much about you i wasn't like ben he's a cool guy i i remember you guys were into like taekwondo or something karate

i mean i never was i think you were ben maybe a short stint well listen so i don't i mean my earliest memories of you is going over to your guys's house in Fargo I'd be like, oh, here we go. And then I show up, because there's three of you and one of me. So, like, we show up and, like, for some reasons, I'd always end up downstairs. You had, like, a

kicking bag or something. I don't fucking know. Yeah. And, and you guys would be in your taekwondo shit, and there I am, and you guys are, like, kicking the thing. You're like, come on, like, you kick it. And then I remember you. I remember this, bro. You kicked me in the fucking ribs.

Like, I'm just a kid, but you're just like a little short asshole. Like, I'm not even ready for you. Just come, like, just like straight face. And I was like, all right. Yeah, I don't know about that Ben guy. Yeah, so at that point, you were, you were just cousins, not friends. Yeah, exactly. It was like, I'm going over to my cousin's house.

But the turning point was when my parents, uh, they drove us down here to look at, you know, houses and they were doing some with your parents. And it was just me and you. And on the way down. I was looking at all the ditches because they were mowed and it was like at a down hill slope and I was like man if I had my bike here I would like totally like ride down that and like try to jump the approach yeah well anyways as soon as we pull up I'm kind of standing around you're like hey you want to ride bike and that's literally the first thing we did like you just immediately went and did that with me without us even like communicating it and I was like that was pretty fun

you know this guy's all right this guy's all right and then we just kind of became friends ever since then yeah i remember that day dude it was like raining out and shit yeah we were just paddling like getting no air and we did that for a while bro we would just terrorize the neighborhood on our pedal bikes and then it developed into dirt bikes it was good times but you you are always into like you know obviously we both were we were just super into dirt bikes anything with a motor really we love that but also just bikes we'd ride scooters yeah pretty much anything hey we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with the TD Small Business Account Manager,

you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play, get up to $2,700 when you open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business. Visit TD.com slash small business match to learn more. Conditions apply. Um, but I remember, know the years went on and uh you always had to like kind of come up with the money to pay for if you wanted a new bike that was bigger you had to you had to pay for yourself yeah so you you've had a job since i mean i'm pretty sure you had a job when it was illegal for you to be for sure i was 13 years old the the uh the reason i got my first job was me and my friend sam were on his dad's four wheelers like the big overland um can't am four wheelers

heavy fuckers right I was turning around doing a shitty or something I flipped it and like you could have died I could have dude I luckily just got thrown off and the thing was like upside down

and I was like oh shit you know it always feels worse when you bring somebody else's stuff right and we flip it back and the back was cracked and I was like I don't have any money

like I'm 13 years old yeah it was like 500 bucks Which seemed like a million back that. That takes a while to make. Exactly. Especially back then. The minimum wage was like seven bucks. Yep.

So we figure out, you know, the plastics to fix it were $550 or something like that. And I maybe had like $200 to my name. I had to get a job. So I went to the Cornrod store, the C store, that we go to all the time. It was my very first job. And I have no idea why they gave me a job. Like, I don't know who was running that at the time. But I think there was a couple of us.

like 13 year olds in there. It was cheap labor. Yeah, cheap labor. They didn't ask. And, yeah, that was the first job I had. That was my first time ever seeing you. I roll into the Carmon store. I just started working down the road and I, like, had to pick some stuff up.

And I saw you and you kind of were like, oh, what's up, man? Because you recognize me. And I don't know. Anyway, I'm like, man, that kid had to have been like 11. And that's the thing is, is when I was 13, I looked probably 11. You were just if not younger. Like, I was, I was small. I didn't hit puberty until I was 21 you know you were really really small though like yeah I was a small guy were you the littlest in your class or was there anyone smaller than you'd remember this because I'm sure it really hit home for you guess who was the smallest person in our class and then it was probably me who Jonas Jonas

Jonas you guys you guys are just too small guys just too little guys you're normal size guys I am but still but people still come up people still treat me like I'm like five one yeah I don't know why Every, it's just like the weirdest times, too. Like, we were doing like a photo shoot for Justin's wedding a couple weeks ago. And the photographer was like, hey, the little guy, get out of the back. We can't see you. And I'm like, bro, are you talking about me? Like, I'm like the same height as everyone else here. You were really small back then, though.

I remember thinking you were just always going to be small for your whole life. Is 5'9 that? That's average. I think that's average at best. Yeah. If you went to China, you definitely. to be one of the taller. I'd be a monster in China.

Yeah. Speaking of you being small and hitting puberty at 21, which I want to say you hit it a little before that. I don't know if you've finished it yet. Yeah. So it was just like, hopefully I'm still going through it, honestly, you know. Everyone on the channel that's watched us for a while knows that Ben has a squeaking problem.

And then six months ago. It comes in waves. Yeah, five months ago, it was so bad, dude. I'm like, honestly, I think he's going to squeak like the rest of his life. And then in the last two months, I've heard you do it like, three times. Maybe you're finishing up. I don't get it.

Yeah. I don't know. We can hold. I don't know. I hope so. I hope my dick grows a little bit. Okay. Now it's turned from the little guy to Ben's getting fat.

Yeah. Which, I mean, don't get me wrong. I've put on probably a couple extra pounds that I don't need. But the issue with it is the internet and the world has seen me grow up from being like that little kid. You were like male nourish. I wouldn't go that far. But I was like that little kid to now.

I'm like normal and it's such a change people are like holy shit you're really getting fat like no I've just matured you know like when we started filming if you go and watch the very first videos I was like 18 years old and a lot of people are like grown at that point I just wasn't my parents are both chiropractors and they're like insanely healthy people and that trickled down to my my brother and my sister and then there was me but if you're a kid you don't have an option And there was me, yeah, yeah, exactly. I didn't have an option of that. So I would basically go over to my friend's house.

Like I would go over to Ryan's house and I'd be like, holy shit, you have sugar cereal? I was like, what? Dude, that was the first thing you'd do. You'd walk in the door. You wouldn't even say hi eventually. You would just walk in, go to the pantry, grab the bag of fruity dino bites and sit down and eat. And then be like, what's up, bro? How's it going?

They'd just talk for a while and then you go grab a juice box. It was the same way at my house, too. I remember my parents like, cracking jokes to you when you were like it'd be like fall and they'd be leaving for the winter and and they'd be like then you're getting ready for hibernation we better give them an extra plate because you're just loading up yeah man I especially I mean it still is like that maybe that's why I've packed on some extra pounds because I can just go out and just buy the food myself yeah I can pick my own diet yeah it is interesting though how everyone in your family is

still rather healthy but it never stuck with you you just weren't built that way no dude i'm like the black sheep of like mostly everything in the family though as i stated like both my parents are chiropractors and like everyone in my family has followed my grandparents are my grandparents on both sides my aunt and uncles i've uh my sister-in-law now literally since earliest i can remember i never wanted to do that and like everyone else in my family did did, like my siblings. I dropped out of college. That was another thing.

I was, like, kind of the first to do that. You definitely don't have the same diet. I don't have the same diet. I don't really have, well, me and my dad have a lot of the same interests. I was going to say that. That's why I like pretty much all the things that I do. Your dad, your grandpa, your uncle, like, they all love, like, motorcycles, snowmobiling. Like, they go to, like, snowmen.

They will go all the way to Alaska by themselves. and then drive back on a motorcycle by themselves. Yeah, that's one thing that I don't really have is like I like being with people. Right. Whereas is the rest of my family is okay with just being like alone and just being like a solo wolf. Where I love like the camaraderie of like the boys. I would much rather go with like the crew than by myself. But you're very similar in the fact of like you like cool cars.

Yeah. You like motorcycles, like snowmills. You like boats. Yeah, I mean, everything that I... You fit in very well. Everything that I guess I'd like, I guess you could attribute to someone in my family. Like my grandpa, me and CJ's grandpa, has had like 27 corvettes. So it's only right that Ben got a Corvettes.

It was only right that I got a Corvette, which is fun. I don't know. Why is our family such Corvette people? I asked them that before, too, and they just said, I don't know. I don't know. We just like them. It's like things like that are just so weird. I think they said bang for your buck.

It is a lot bang for your buck. For sure. Dude, my dad, grandpa, uncle, all of them have literally tried. traveled like the entire world on a motorcycle and it is it is really is mind blowing and and i always thought that like oh i mean you do you know plenty of people have like family members like that but like the older i get it's like no that's that's pretty rare like like true adventure like like that is really rare and what i still don't fully understand is like the why aspect of it right which i'm still trying to figure out it doesn't sound as good of a time by yourself no i that's i don't

fully get that but uh yeah man i mean since i was like a little kid dude my dad would just put me in between his arms and we would just go bang like 500 miles of trail on a snowmobile wow yeah or i would hop on the motorcycle and we would go like out to montana and i would just be like a little tight just hanging on one could say like that it's in your blood yeah when you start that early and you're crushing just crazy adventures even even the even the story about like when they got you your first snowmobile and you had that little pond in the back your house and you could only keep it on the pond so you do like like 500 laps a million laps winter they put me on a snowmobile when i was two years old wow that's how it should be that's how

it should be it really should be yeah that's how i want to like raise my kid when i get one yeah when i get one when i no like if you know when i have kids one day i definitely would want to raise them to be Kind of like that adventurous soul, but I think there's so much to be said about teaching kids like motor skills when they're young, too, because, you know, when they get old enough to hop in a car, like they're aware of their surroundings. And they're just like so much more prepared than people that don't have that. It also helps, I think, with your coordination, like, reaction skills. Yes, exactly. If you're on a bike and you're, say, riding a trail, you have to, like, make a decision every split second. Like which route do I take?

Do I go around this rock or whatever? Yep. You know, like when we were in Akeley, like, if we were wrote a lot more single track, you would have had a lot of that. Right. Which we, I mean, kind of grew up doing. I'd imagine, though, if, if I were to get hurt doing something that, like, my dad taught me how to do, like, that'd be pretty hard on him, you know?

And I think about that for me, like, would I want to put my kid on a motorcycle that could, like, endanger him or, like, get in an accident? it in of some sort, you know. I will say, though, like, one thing, though, is, like, there's, like, two different sides to, like, putting your kid on a motorcycle or a snowmobile. It's, like, there's the guys that are, like, you're going to race, and, like, they get them racing, like, you're going to get hurt. It's inevitable.

You're probably going to still get hurt riding a dirt bike in general. Yeah. Eventually, if you're going to ride it long enough. But it was, like, you didn't have to hit jumps. They weren't telling you to hit jumps. They weren't telling you to do dangerous stuff. To go faster. You know?

And, like, I definitely would, like, like, what you were saying, I would never push my kid to do anything like that you know because then you'll feel bad but like if if they want to go and try hit a jump like go for it i'm not i'm not going to be like you should hit that jump like well i would say i'm pretty moderate yeah you're in the middle yeah like the reckless scale like i don't i don't just throw on a helmet i'm like i got a helmet on this is protecting me for anything it's not like that but yeah it is it is just being pretty aware of your surroundings and uh getting those basic life skills have you ever gotten hurt you know riding like what are some time on the channel and off because on the channel just in

generally the whole life the first first injury i ever had that i can remember well i fell off a piano bench and broke my arm when i was a little kid who knew piano could be dangerous yeah exactly you were better on a dirt bike yeah and then uh i was riding with my brother sam one day and i came over this hill as sam was coming down it and he hit me with his with his bike hit my top of my foot and I broke my foot and Sam Sam was like you can't tell mom and dad if they find out that I hit you like I'm gonna be in so much trouble

so I took that I probably should have taken it to the grave but like a couple years back I was just like hey remember that time I broke my foot and I just told them a while back and what'd you do about yeah what'd you tell them sure it was broken oh Sam was like tell him that you tipped over and you crushed it

oh okay I was gonna say I was like how the fuck you have a broken foot and you just wear it No, I think I did wear it for like a couple days. And then I was like, I think my foot's like messed up. Really? Big old black and blue. God damn. So I guess I got hurt like that.

I flipped over backwards doing a wheelie at like 60 one time. That's right. That was at the start of the channel. That sucks, dude. I literally skid down the road and tore a hole in my shoulder through a jacket, a sweatshirt, a t-shirt, and then into my skin. And I probably still have a scar. And after that, I was like, dude, high-speed wheelies are not to be fucked with.

But I really didn't slow us down. Actually, literally knock on wood. Actually, I've not gotten hurt doing too many things. I'm trying to think back. I don't know. Can you guys think of me? That was my genuine question was when we first started filming, you looped out really bad that one time. And then, from then on, you've been lucky.

Yeah. My memory of you being injured, granted, you didn't really have like an. accident you uh you had to play like you played soccer and like you wouldn't do any physical activity all summer and then come fall when you start soccer practice up apparently they would run you really hard yeah and i remember you couldn't walk bro you just limp around you gimp around you like you're like you're so we started calling you polio boy but like i'm not kidding you i would gimp around and i had a cough i was like sick yeah dude yeah i don't like he i've been limping around what the heck happened why j's like polio boy

Right, those are different times. You could say things like that. You could joke about polio. Yeah, but anyways. Well, I think nowadays, it's okay. What do you mean? What happened? Like, how the hell do you, you just ran?

And apparently you couldn't walk. It's like shin splints, bro. It's like shin splints, but in your ankles. Bro, you had, like, you were, like, crawling around. Yeah, it's terrible. It's like the equivalent of, you had crutches. It's like the equivalent of having two sprained ankles. Like, that shit sucks.

And he was just so little back then. And I would do it every single year. I wouldn't condition before. Male marriage. Soccer was. start maybe it's because it's so melnourished bro yeah well that's why you look like you had polio you were so skinny yours coughing i was like oh a little polio boy you felt bad yeah yeah that sucked i was speaking of soccer ben uh what about uh i don't know how old you would have been

how old would you have been when you got your minor what that's right dude the transition well i was thinking about it because they'll it'll make more sense as we get into it i think i know where you're going with this. Okay, so I was 16 years old, and we had just started, we had just started boozing, I want to say, like everyone. And I just so happened to be the youngest in the group. Everyone else was, we're 19 years older than you. Yeah, exactly. But even still, I think we were all kind of just starting. Yeah. So when everyone else started boozing, it was just my time. And I just so happened to be 16 years old, right? I crushed like eight beers, maybe even more. No, maybe. It was maybe like six.

It was more than me. That's for sure. Let's go in the middle. Let's say seven. All right. So I crushed seven beers. And I was, I was fucked up. It was probably my, like, third time drinking ever.

And I, you know, started throwing up. My girlfriend at the time was the first day hanging out with her, wasn't it? Wasn't my girlfriend? Yeah, it was like just starting to talk to her. She is your girlfriend. My girlfriend now. Yes, exactly. Yep.

What a start. What a start. She gives me a ride home to, my house and I start throwing I was like dry heaving like in her car and her friends are in the back seat and they're like pull over pull over so we pull over on the side of the road and I start throwing up outside the door actually I might have done the courtesy of just getting out and throwing up right at the one street light at the one street light in between Cormrott in my parents house there literally is no street lights no street lights terrible spot yeah and I I come to

I look up and I'm like Oh shit We're like kind of like in town right And they're like cornrod town Underneath this street light Like we should go Like we should get going I hop it back in the car

And we start to like to pull out Cop lights Turn on behind us and they're like Cops pulling us over I'm like oh shit I'm just tweaking in the front seat Right cop comes up Anybody been drinking tonight

My girlfriend is just like You know innocent and just silent her friends in the backseat. He has, he has! Yeah, they just gnarled me out. I'm like, oh, shit. I, you know, I, like, knew I was getting in trouble. Well, at that point, yeah, you're getting in trouble.

So much stuff running through your head at that point. Oh, yeah. Next thing I know, you know, he's breathalizing me and doing all this stuff. I get back in the car and he comes back and he goes, all right, here's the thing. You can either call your parents to come and pick you up, or we can bring you you to jail for the night and I was contemplating it I was like

call my dad or go to jail and I was like okay I'll call my parents right call my dad pissed probably partially because I woke him up but

comes and picks me up told the cop that he should have brought me to jail it was like it would be easier than you know bringing him home and so go home I'm still throwing up I'm still hammered right I'm throwing up he's videotaping it

I'm sure he's still he's sitting over here laughing right now but he's videotaping it I hope those videos never surfaced and uh I don't know I get grounded and all this shit

they were like well you just fucked up your relationship with Greta she's such a good girl like she's never gonna talk to you again and I was like I'm so screwed like I was down in the dumps right I was like oh they're gonna tell the school

I'm gonna get Right. I'm going to get, you know, that's what happens. That's what happens. That's what happens. When you get a minor. Yeah. Yeah, it's like playing with fire. I'm going to get suspended from my sports, which I didn't really care about, to be honest, because I was like, I just played sports just to do it. And what I was most worried about is all my friends finding out, because I hung out with that friend group that was like anti-drinking, you know. It's like the cool kids in the group that are like, no, like the kids that drink in our grade are losers. We can have fun in any other way.

Yeah. Yeah. Now they're just full-on boosers now. Yeah. Because you had two, to clarify for the listener, you had two different groups. You had like our group because we didn't go to school together. We just lived around this area. And then you had your friend group from school.

Yeah. That you went to school with. And that's how they were. So I was just like super worried about people finding out, honestly. I was just like that self-conscious high schooler, you know? I mean, it's probably not the best thing for people to find out. No, definitely, definitely. And, you know, I didn't want my girlfriend's parents to find out.

It was just not a good look. Been talking to the town. Been talking to the town. It's a small town. I go to school on Monday. No call. Tuesday. No call.

Wednesday. No call. Next week. Next week close by. And after that second week, I was like, I think I'm actually good. But, dude, you didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell anyone. Greta's friends in the back seat didn't tell anybody.

I have absolutely no idea. how nobody found out and you kept playing soccer and i kept playing soccer and golf and all that and you kept boozing on the weekends too because like those of you that go to any small school or even medium-sized school like you people just they're gonna know you you want to know why i think you got out of it why they didn't find out about it is because you live here in cormorant and most people that live in this area would go to lake park another small school but you went to detroit lakes and I guarantee you the cop maybe like told the Lake Park person or whatever and he was like hey yeah and then this guy's I don't fucking know who that is and that is it you know I don't know

dude I've played it over so many times as to what could have happened and I still have no idea just haunts you huh no it really like I don't know it just doesn't make any sense it doesn't make any sense like when have you ever heard of that happening most no it's time people don't have the entire internet world to tell the story too afterwards but i've never heard of that someone gets a minor even if i literally could like not have ever even met them let's say but they go to my school like you're gonna find out dude you guys want to know the craziest part yeah i'm down oh shit okay so you you have to you know you pay a fine you have to do community service i don't know i can't even remember what else you have to do oh you have to write an essay

about never drinking again and everything. Dude, I did my community service at the fucking high school. At the high school on a Saturday. No one was like, what are you doing? Bro, it was the craziest. I was like, oh my God, we could do it anywhere else in the world. And I would have been fine. But of course, it has to be at the one place I don't want finding out about it.

And they still never found out. What did said community service consist of? Oh, I just, like, had to clean everything. It's just, like, I don't know, doing, like, the dirty work, like the janitor's assistant. Yeah, yeah, I had to do that just for being late. Oh, you had it pretty easy. Yeah, I was like, I had to help the janitors clean just for having tardies, and you got, you have to serve community service.

Well, Mike, when you're late that many times, they start punishing you to the highest degree. It's about the same equivalent. Yeah. Yeah. Getting a minor is nothing. It's not a big of it. It's not, well, I shouldn't say that. You don't want to promote that.

Yeah, I was like, absolutely. I mean, it really is. Yeah, I would not recommend it by any means. I got off pretty easy, but, like, it's not a good look, you know? I wouldn't suggest it. I wouldn't suggest it by the end of the world if you get one, though. But yeah, maybe that's the thing. Yeah, I want to say, like, your life's not over.

That's sometimes, you know, in the middle of a kid getting that. It's a lot worse things you can do. You think in your life might be over in that small instance, but it's not. You know, I think that's just one of the things that kind of comes with being the youngest one of the group when we have such a vast range of ages yeah you know because ken just turned what 21 or 22 because i remember ken supplied the alcohol so if the cops are coming if the cops are listening right now and they're trying to do something put this guy in handcuffs ken wasn't he would have been like 20 no i'm kidding ken didn't supply

the alcohol so then shortly after that it would have been probably the following year your senior year is kind of when we started posting to youtube yeah what was uh what was that like I mean, you were still in high school, so... Yeah. Did people say anything? No, no, honestly. Were we not getting enough traction? I think we're finding out Ben's is not a popular kid in high school.

Yeah, that's what this is... People are watching this right now. He went to Detroit Lentz. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for $5 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery.

no dude um honestly when we started filming our videos i remember my like immediate friends thinking it was really cool and they were like they were supportive of it and they thought it was cool i i had i had one teacher that you know said to like the classic like oh you can't make money on the internet or that's not a job or that's not cool or some shit i don't even remember I mean, that shows how much it affected me. But other than that, because, like, you got to remember, we were pretty small that first year, dude. I'm trying to even think.

What do we even have, like, when I would have graduated? 50K. Yeah, something like that. 50, 60. Going into college, where we even had 100, we were probably just hitting, like, 100 when we were going into college. That's such a small. That's, you know, it's not a lot to talk about.

But, yeah, I could definitely see where people, would in high school especially get affected by trying to start something because of other people quote unquote thinking it's like not cool and it's always like the cool kids that love to just like make little jokes and then all like the kids that suck the cool kids dick uh you know hopping on board and then that's it's just like a compound effect of of like bullying or like putting people down on it but yeah man i was i was pretty lucky as to where i was like in my life and uh you know i've yeah i've always been like pretty confident and i don't really look to other people for you know like their approval so like that i don't know like i think back

to those times and i was just like so i was so sure of what we were doing that it was like cool you know it didn't it didn't affect me now that i look back at the videos i'm like oh shit i would have probably fucking bullied me You know, but it's like, I don't know, it's just like the small snowball that goes into something more. And I was just like a really good, good stage of my life. Optimal timing. I feel like you're lucky being young. Yeah.

Because you're like, you got a jumpstart on your entire or our career. You know, we were like 20 years old kind of kicking off where people are like, oh, you're going to go get that internship? And then I'm like, no, I'm going to do that. Yeah. But you were just graduating high school. That's kind of cool for you that, like, you were. were able to like get such a good jump out of high school and the thing about it is i i always wanted

to do some kind of business or start my own business or or i don't know i just knew i wanted to do something in business and make a lot money you want to be an entrepreneur i wanted to be an entrepreneur i think i just saw this as such a good opportunity and so much potential like from the get go you know I was always like really about it like I didn't have to be convinced to do it I don't know I just saw something in it and I was willing to literally throw my life away for it because I didn't have a whole lot going for me outside of that you know like I was like oh if it works if it works great that's what I that's what I want to do if it doesn't I'm really not out anything right how long did you go to college for like year and a half barely though dude when I went to college I I knew

from the moment I walked through the doors at college on the first day, I was going to drop out. I knew. Like, I was like, I don't know why I'm even here on the first day of school because I'm going to drop out, whether it's in a semester or three-fourths of the way through college. I was like, I'm going to drop out of college. I'm literally just here until the rest of my comrades agree with me, with being like

you guys. I was like, I just have to convince everyone to also drop out or for Mike to just, like, quit his job and everything like that and like one by one by one like we did yeah you told me that many times you're like this is not even done with your first year you're like i'm gonna drop out i want to drop out at least but yeah it was the continual like adults around you shaming you kind of i mean not saying that affected you that much but it was one factor you're just like no i'm gonna do it i just trying to figure out the best time yeah exactly and and i mean it kind of goes back to like this small town thing and like the only real connection i kind of have to like the outside

world is like my girlfriend you know and and i i i always go to her like okay so like if i do this like what what are what are people saying like on the outside right what do people think like what would your parents think and and everything like that and that was kind of like the only thing that really deterred me from doing it just from the get go and granted she would have never cared or like told me not to but it was just like that's like my connection to like the real world yeah yeah i mean i kind of just went with the status quo if if like people are watching this right now and they're like i don't know if i should go to college or not go to a cheap college you don't have to go to an expensive college go to a cheap college if you're kind of in

between until you find like that thing that you want to do i don't get all suckered in what are you go with two years yeah don't get suckered in and then kick you know two years of generals and you walk out what do you have to show for that nothing but two years of a trade at a school or that yeah exactly but like the people that are like i don't i don't know if i want to go to college but uh i want to like start my own business it's like either start your own business and like do it 100 or just go to college and like dabble in it until you figure out what your thing is that you want to quit college for you know like i don't think i think people overthink it i ever thought it for sure i think the tides are changing though tides are changing because like

I mean, our first ever hire, Justin. He's sitting by on the cameras around. You're not in school right now. You just graduate high school, right? He's in online schooling, but, you know, like he didn't jump into just going right to a big university. And, I mean, same with my brother. Same with a few of his friends.

Like, I feel like the ties of change and people are starting to realize, like, eh, you know. And I understand the experience of college. But once it's done, it's done. And you just drank the whole time. you're still a dumb idiot with a bunch of debt now. So, yeah, college experience is only worth so much. Exactly.

The experience is great for the memories. And I'm not, I didn't mean like you're going to be a dumb idiot. Some people will. Some most hopefully won't. When I was in college, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that I went to like a college party. Like, I feel like looking back at that part of our life, it was such a grind time. And I don't even know what the fuck we were doing.

Yeah, you didn't even have time for that. I just remember being, like, so focused on just working, and I didn't really care what it was working on. It was just, like, doing something productive that, like, grew the brand in any kind of way. I didn't have a college experience, literally. Well, because you were in the dorm, right? And your roommate was rather odd. Strange guy. Yeah.

I stayed at my dorm room once. Okay, one time. I just, that's insane, dude. Like, you literally just didn't go there. One night. I stayed there one night. either I would just stay at the lake and just drive in or I'd stay at the Seaboy's house, the college house, or Greta's.

What you were working on, though, if we backtrack a little bit, it was your idea to start the merch. I mean, it was very common for YouTubers to do merch, but you were like, we should do merch rather early. I mean, you took the initiative and you got it all set up. When I was a senior in high school, I interned for my girlfriend, Greta's dad. he owns a screen printing company and they're like crazy successful like massive

um huge that's actually kind of like down to the root of of why i wanted to always do something in business and why i wanted to own my own business i saw that and i saw all the other really successful businessmen and i always like admired their their their schedule their income and just like being a boss so i always knew i wanted to do that but when i was interning forum it was at around the same time that we had started the youtube channel and they had like these old screen printers they were like the manual screen printers so you'd like burn off a screen and then you would like manually press the ink through the screen onto the shirt and then you put it on this oven and it would bake the the ink to the shirt boom you have a t-shirt i think

we were like 50 that 30 000 subs or something like that 50 000 and um i don't even know if we were at that honestly right and i did the math it like if you started those shirts i think it was like november or december we had only been we had just started posting in september there's how the hell did we generate 50 000 subs from zero yeah we had to been at like if we're lucky you had 20 000 way too early in hindsight but at the time i was just like excited to do something and try something new and it was like anything to make money just like doing something yeah like i'm not like entirely money driven. I don't really care about that, but it's like feeling that sense of like, oh, man, we

did something really successful. We just dropped a really good video. People are reacting to it. They love it. It's like little things like that that make me so much happier. And at the time, it was like, if we can create our own t-shirts and sell them to literally 25, 50 people, and they love the t-shirts. And we got like a sense of like, we built this with our hands. Like, that's all I want. I literally taught myself how to burn screens in my parents living room or in my parents' basement furnace room. All by yourself with Micah.

We taught ourselves how to burn these screens, print the t-shirts. We had, like, the shittiest supplies. This is all we could afford. We would use this oven thing that was meant to just, like, it's called flash the ink. So it's like, if you flash it, then you can print another. color on top of it well we would use the flash to cure the entire shirt we uh had our screen printer set up at ken's uncles our neighbors over there at the time and uh we took one of their old refrigerators and put it on its side and that's what we would use for the base of the

of like the oven to flash over it and we would carry it like across but like moral of the story is i i don't know i was just like excited to do something and like creating another source of revenue and we were we were using that money just to like fund the channel and just like i don't know just like grow and it was like pennies at the time because i mean we'd make like yeah let's say if 1500 bucks we'd make that back and that you know that was just enough oh cool now we can buy another peanut yeah little things like that because youtube didn't youtube didn't pay us like at all we weren't getting many views we weren't getting many views exactly and it's it's hard to make money off of videos that aren't pulling views yeah yeah dude i remember

learning how to do that and it's such a it's such a process like printing 50 shirts would take i don't know probably what 20 hours it was like once we got into from like burning the screens to printing it to cleaning the screens like it's such a process right we became more of a screen printing company literally yeah at one point yeah so it's like as like a side hustle. Me and Michael would go out and print shirts for other companies. You know, we were doing it for like a trucking company and just literally any way to put money in our pocket because at the time we were just like full-time YouTubers and not getting paid. Ben is easily the most entrepreneurial

spirit I've ever met. And so when we were filming videos, we weren't full time yet. We were keeping mind, you know? So that's why he had the idea to like, he's like, let's do merch because should you do merch at 30, 40, 50 K subs? Probably not. No. No, you shouldn't. No, you shouldn't at all. Like, not even a probably not. But the reason, yeah, you shouldn't. You should focus on the content for sure. But the reason we did was because when we would get together, we could only film one video weekend. And it might not even be a full video because, again, we weren't full time. So when we had all this downtime. Yeah, like everyone else had kind of jobs. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't have a great system. No, we didn't. The way it had to be. We didn't know we needed a system because how are we going to make a system for YouTube videos?

that don't make us any money. When I look back at the road of business that has brought me to here, I would consider myself delusionally optimistic and delusionally entrepreneurial. And it's like doing more is not doing the most, though. Back then, though, I definitely thought that. You were pretty whole-headed. You were like, we're going to just outwork everyone. We're going to work all the time.

Like, if you're not here, help you. Fold shirts, you know, like, what are you doing? Like, it was very bullheaded, I would say. I think there is something to be said about having that mentality and then, which is good, but almost moving that energy into something that's more efficient. I remember at one point you were coming out, like, I couldn't believe it. You were coming up with so many good ideas. Bro, you come up with a business idea every week.

It was like, I couldn't keep up with them. And they were good, too. And so it's like, we were like, oh, should we do that? And then we would entertain the idea for a while. And then we realized after a long time that if we put our eggs in the YouTube basket and really cruise on, then it would do good. But yeah, you ever, you had, like, we had an idea to, uh, open an ice cream shop. Ice cream shop. We had an idea to, uh, deliver, uh, firewood to people around the lake.

Yeah. Uh, goodwood. Uh, print T-shirts for people just lake based. Yeah, all kinds of stuff. But it's like, ideas are only so good without any execution. But also that that motivated me. You came up with so many ideas that circles around me that I was like, we'll make something work. Although that those years we definitely weren't working the most effectively, we really did like, we literally pulled our YouTube channel by the bootstraps.

We're like, all right, we no matter, even if printing the T-shirts wasn't the smartest idea, we worked 17 hours a day every weekend. We would get there Friday night. We'd work all day until 3 a.m. I remember we would get a pizza. We'd get to order a pizza as payment. Yeah. And we would just grind for those like, dude, like two years. That was what we did.

And in that way, it gave us all something to do to keep us focused on the business. And in a roundabout way, I really think that is what got us through those beginning years when YouTube wasn't paying us. And when making a video only was so much work. Granted, we probably could have gotten here way faster if we'd made four videos a weekend. But it was just what we did. the time yeah it was part of the journey and i wouldn't change it for anything exactly but it's like now that i've gone down that path like i have a pretty good outlook on on business just because of how much we've done and how much like i've tried to do like if somebody comes up to me it's like

oh i want to do this or i have this idea i have a pretty good idea whether it's going to work or not because of the amount of things that we've tried yeah that's true and you're able to guide them You're able to give them a handful of sentences and be like, all right, go do it. I think that goes back to, you know, like you were pretty bullheaded back then. Now you think more, I would say. But you've obviously learned that from experience. Yeah, now it's like, I don't really want to waste time. It's weird, though.

Speaking of time, like we would sit there and print shirts in a shop all night and all day on a Saturday and literally doing nothing. But we were hanging out. but honestly like i don't remember like thinking like this sucks i just was like we were just doing it because and keep in mind also we didn't really have much else to do we were still and we were still making more money than we would uh like you know working not doing it yeah i was just like we're printing our own shirts you know we're making money and we're also yeah like it was just

it was fun it was fun honestly but yeah no realistically it wasn't the right yeah the right way to do things but you never really know the right way to do things yeah exactly that's interesting times that like now we'll still work until three in the morning right yeah it's just all the none of us have a problem with that at all yeah no problem however back then we would do it with literally without even thinking about it it wasn't this like ah tonight's gonna be a late night it wasn't like that we literally would just work i'd be like oh shoot it's literally four in the morning it's probably get some rest you don't have much other option that's just kind of what you did though it's great it wasn't a whole lot of other choices to like grind was fun it was like going through

a mirror house at the fair but we just ran we didn't like stop and look at which way was the smartest way to make it through and we ran into every glass and every so often we would get through a hole and it would just keep pushing us along down the road yeah that's a good way to look at it how many times have you had someone come up to you and like they'll be like talking like this happens to me all the time i think it happens to you guys too but it'll be like someone who's trying to do like a youtube channel or be like an influencer of some sort and and they like come up and they're like yeah so like they start talking about like how they they're going to start their merch and their their merchandise is like their name and I'm like okay

nice and then and then you like so what do you do and they're like well I haven't started posting my videos I'm like well how are you going to sell the shirts you don't have it you know yeah that's they get too caught up and that's like step D but you got to go ABC before that yeah I mean if anyone watching this right now wants to start a YouTube channel I wouldn't even consider merch until you have

I don't know 100,000 like stickers at most if you have like stickers yeah yeah I'd say if you have a good following literally just double down on YouTube just make the content and then everything else will follow yeah I think you see that a lot of times

with like the bigger creators now they are they are mostly content based because there is a lot of money to be made on YouTube and if you realize that and you just double down on that then the rest will follow but we didn't have anyone telling us that's no that's for sure yeah I don't I guess it is very subjective base I wouldn't say there's like a certain amount that you should start even if you do have 30,000 you might have 30,000 really really if you got people asking followers but I'm just saying like just the content is the is the number one thing yeah

absolutely like if you're selling if you want to make a clothing brand it's a different story but right yeah you want to sell your shirts because you want to have a cool youtube channel have a cool youtube channel first yeah yeah it kind of brings us up to today now you know what what would you say like your roles nowadays i yeah i wear a lot of hats for sure i'd say just like my main roles though like off the top of my head would be editor which i don't love i'm actually pretty good at it pretty good at it yeah pretty good at it but like i i don't really love it i don't find a passion in it neither to cj but we're pretty good at it done yeah it needs to get done so i don't really have a problem with that i taught myself how to edit um let's see what would

have been four years ago it was just like a slow process of just getting a little bit better every every video let's see so that uh i do like the accounting work so i like you know pay most of the bills and then uh which i don't know why this is funny but it's funny because you're the youngest yeah it's not it's normal now but before i think you just came into for some reason when you it was like we needed to set up the the quick books and you were the one who did it i was just like all right your mom showed you how to do it so you just became the guy yeah so i paid like all the taxes all the checks to to pay all of our um wages and everything like that anders yeah so believe Believe it or not, Ben, Ben, he's a smart guy.

Believe it or not, despite what you see. I don't know. That's my next question, though, you know. Well, hold on, hold on, my roles. We'll get to, we'll get to how stupid I am after. Let's see, what else? Come up with a lot of the video ideas, do a lot of filming, do a lot of the talking, obviously. I can help you know.

When Merse drops come around, most of the photos, I used to work with Mike. pretty closely on the merch but kind of handed that off to Ryan and Ken but they still work with Mike I still do I try and sit in and give you like ideas and yeah like for example like the stay stoked that that whole idea that was your idea I drew that I just I drew that on Snapchat yeah you just sent it to you I said make this into a logo I bring it to life so everyone helps with that but helps with that it is it is interesting Ben and I were like right-hand men as far as creating the merch and now it's relatively hands off because you have so many other hats to wear Yeah, a lot of other stuff.

What else is on there? I guess it's hard to think. I think you named them all, honestly. Do you feel like as the youngest guy in the group, you have anything to prove to, to, like, other people or to us? Like, do you feel like growing up that way that you were like, I have to make a name for myself or I have to do more? No, honestly, not at all, dude.

I feel, like, I wish I did less. Like, I wish Ken being the oldest in the group was like, I'm the oldest in the group. I should do more. Like, honestly, I don't know. I don't really have, like, I would like to think I don't have a much of an ego when it comes to that of like I need to make, I need to prove myself. I feel like you don't.

I feel like you definitely do more than enough to prove yourself. And I don't think they have an ego. I was going to say, I feel like you don't think you're any younger and anyone else. Everyone feels the same. Also, I don't, yeah, I don't necessarily look at myself as like the youngest. Especially now. Yeah. Once I hit like 21, before that, oh man, things were different.

Life kind of sucked before 21 because all of my. friends would just leave me and I would just be back. I do remember that. We'd just hit you with like the sorry, homie. Sorry. Yeah. It's like all good. I'd probably do the same.

Yeah. So no, I don't feel like I have to prove myself being like by age. I definitely try and like work as hard as possible and like inspire others to work really hard to. Like bring others up. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. Yeah. You're a positive energy.

versus a negative energy. Yeah, I'd say you're definitely a natural leader. Like, when you're in the room, people know you're in the room. I don't think you're ever in the room and people don't know that you were in there. But I mean, that comes down to like not wasting time. You're like, hey, I'm, you know, let's get something rolling here. That's not a lolligig. Yeah.

Okay, to answer your question, though, with age, I feel like it's like a little weird being so much younger, but still coming off as like, I don't, don't want to be like bossy but I also want to get shit done and it's tough when you're the youngest one because it does come off more as bossy you know but it's like no we're like put age aside we're trying to accomplish the same thing I'm going to just be harder on you and that's why I don't because I want to get it done faster we're not like damn like Ben should not be telling us you know we don't ever think that for a second okay good because we're on the same page we're trying to achieve the same goal.

Good. It would suck if we did think that, yeah. We're just like, dude, this fucking kid. This kid. I was going to ask you, you know, obviously you were smart at one point. I was. I used to be. That was nice.

At one point. But, I mean, us as a group, we were talking the other day when you were out of the room. Yeah. You know. We feel like you're getting dumb every day. But the real, this is going to really solidify it. are you seeing what we're seeing I mean that depends

what are you seeing do you feel like you're getting dumber as time goes on you know when you say that it does kind of get under my skin because I don't feel like I'm getting dumber every day that's exactly what someone that's getting dumber every day would say

they would be unaware of it who originally said this CJ oh yeah when you ran over well I ran over a box in the driveway because I was driving a monster truck. I drove over a tiny little cardboard. No, it was just a breaking point. Oh, okay.

I feel, yeah. I was like, but guess what we ended up doing with that box? Throwing it away. Well, yeah, because Ben drove over. Broke and crushed everything. Okay, be honest with me. Do you think I'm getting dumber? No, I wasn't even a part of it.

Not every day, but most days, yeah. Do you actually? I think maybe you're just so in your head thinking that you're unaware of what's going on. Which wouldn't even kind of getting dumber. As to what, like, give me a example. We'll be having a conversation, like, maybe it's just you don't listen. I'm just not listening. It doesn't mean I'm dumb.

It's not listening. Here's the video schedule. We're doing this, this, and this and this on this day. And then literally right after that, you go, hey, so what are we doing for Thursday? I just said it. It's written on the board right there. I just might have blanked out and wasn't listening. Yeah.

That's the only reason, like, I'm ever sarcastic. If we have, like, a legitimate plan and something is happening at this time and we go, hey, something's happening at this time. And then someone goes, hey, when's that happening? That's the only reason. You're sarcastic? No, you're a sarcastic asshole. Fine.

You know what? Maybe we're biased. Maybe we're just, you know, we are quick to snap. But what if, you know, you and your girlfriend have been together a really long time. Jesus. How long have you been together? Almost six years. Six years.

So she knows you. And she's probably. probably would see if you're having an incline, a decline, staying the same. In mental capacity. Yeah. I'm actually intrigued to hear what she has to say. I'm going to call her right now. All right now.

So this is our first phone call guest on our Life Wide Open podcast. So this is kind of a big moment here. Hey, Greta. Hi, how's it going? Pretty good. How are you? Good. Where are you calling me?

Well. Ben's in the hot seat? Yes, he is. He is. He is. So we're kind of at a. Well, it's a pretty important question we have for you, actually. Uh-oh.

What is it? You know, you and Ben have been together a really long time, and obviously you know him very well, and we're just curious if you're seeing exactly what we're seeing, you know, just being with him every day. How do I say this nicely? Yeah. Do you feel like he is getting dumber?

no she's so nice well then never mind it might be us it might be us double down on it said oh my gosh no absolutely no i think he's getting smarter no holy shit all right well there we go there we go all right i'm sorry that's probably that was it no i'm sorry hopefully do you actually think he's getting dumber listen greta we don't want to change your opinion on ben you guys

live happy together delusionally. It's all good. Man, I don't think you're getting dumber. Thanks, babe. At least you got one person. All right, thanks, Greta. Didn't mean to scare you. All right, see you.

That is funny. Dude, she could genuinely... Well, that's good to know. She could genuinely think you're getting dumber and still lie. That's true. Yeah, she's great. She really is. Not saying she did that, but...

Shit, now you're making me question it. You need that, okay, fast forward to you. I mean, hang it out with her tonight or something, and you're like, babe, so were you? Tell them the truth. Get a lie to tester, tech. Whoa. Shit. Bring in the lie to tester.

Yeah. No, I don't, I honestly, I don't think I'm getting dumber. I'm just probably getting worse at listening. Yeah, I think that's ultimately what it is. A lot of distractions. Not even bad distractions. Just a lot of distractions. Yeah, probably like, yeah, I mean, I am thinking a lot.

Yeah, that is what it is. I am constantly, like, in my own. world yeah so i could see that but i mean it is kind of frustrating when you i think there is some genuine uh honesty in your guys a statement of that i'm getting dumber like it comes off as kind of like a joke but i think you do you do believe that we could find a way just to bring you to school one day a week no no it's not it's not dumb like like smart's dumb i like get what you're saying No. The only way I could ever clown on you for that is if like, you know, it's like I'd have to figure

myself up before I can call you dumb, you know? I think that's actually where the term dumber every day got coined. Was when Ben was driving the Mustang and ran out of the box. Oh, I think it had to be around you. I hadn't heard it up until that day, so. You guys just call me dumb. All right, that's enough on the dumb talk. Back to the smart talk.

Yeah. Last podcast, you said that you were going to have a new goal. Oh shit A new goal A non-monetary goal Yeah material based Like Company-wise

I'll make it easier on you So I'm not going to ask you like What's your five-year plan? Because I literally think that's the stupidest question We don't know where we're going to be tomorrow Yeah Like Let alone

You must have a really stable life of you You have a five-year plan Yeah Looking out a year What would you like to accomplish Within that year What your personal life Or just do you

the business i i'd say like what are some goals that you would would like to do or even just things you'd like to do uh i'd say one of my one of my favorite things that we're doing really good at is we're getting a more defined schedule where i'd like in in a year i'm going to know what i'm going to be doing in two weeks or next week because i think like the more we are planned out and scheduled out the more successful will be mostly because it does it does force us to like sit down think of of video topics schedule them out you know it's bigger ideas if we want to do a take time if we want to do a big idea well we need a month to prepare this or that and that and i think with that will come you know just more success overall more views more subscribers uh you know if when

you said like what's a goal of yours like a goal of mine is to just get to every video hit a million views i really that's gonna be like a big moment for like i've been waiting for ever since a million subscribers it's in all right now how do we get the views to every single video hit a million views like a cult falling of a million people that's huge that's huge i was like really hard to feels better than hitting a million subscribers like i want i want to go to go to our youtube page and just scroll one mill one mill one you know like something like that a lot of views like i think that's gonna That's going to be really good, a little bit more of, like, a defined schedule, like, personally-wise. I like to buy a house.

You know, like, I don't really want to buy a starter home. I want to buy, like, a nice, like, a nice lake home, you know? So, I'm going to just keep saving until I can do that. I mean, you're only 22. Exactly. Yep. Holy shit. I love that we are, we're continuing to just work smarter as to, like, delegating.

jobs to people that are or we can just hire it out to you know i i eventually don't really want to edit you know i want to hire that out basically every waking moment not working in the business just working on it like working like bigger scale and just growing it as a whole instead of doing like the like the small minute tasks that need to get done so i like in a year out ideally just like just constantly thinking of big video ideas and just filming video ideas and just filming like bangor videos like that when i think of like what makes me uh like most fulfilled and happiest it's when we finish a video and we sit down on the couch and we watch it and we all get up and we're like yeah damn we made something out of nothing yeah like we created a 20

minute video a piece of content that the entire world can consume that will be on the internet forever yeah yeah and uh everyone loves it and we feel really good about it because as like as being the you know a large part of the video ideas guy and the filmmaker and the personality and then the editor it's like taking literally nothing and then creating something so refined and funny and enjoyable and creative that feels so good that's probably what you know one of the top things that makes me happy and like most fulfilled i don't know like i'm just like addicted to that i agree that's i'm so addicted i'm so addicted to that and it's not even like the money aspect of it at all it's just making something that's good that people enjoy and obviously i just want to do more

of that but at the end of the day yeah it's just like as long as people are responding well a lot of people are responding well. And I think back to, you know, our YouTube journey and like the, my state of mind when we were here, here, here. And I'm like, I feel so dialed in right now where I'm so confident in the next year. If I can get to the only thing that I think about is just making good videos and just growing the content side of things, like if that's all I'm focusing on, how successful will be. hiring people is obviously like bettering ourselves but it's also growing you know it's like

literally growing our team and it will also grow our mindsets honestly i love the podcast because it shows it's such a different side of us that you would never see on on the normal videos and i think it creates so much more depth over the next year i want to get to a place where i'm so much more than just a YouTuber where I have so many different opinions on things that matter and I can like make a difference like what I say people will stop and listen to because they're like oh he he has like knowledge on it and is like respectable and I don't like I like I want to just become more diverse and more than just like a like a crazy entertainer like that you know I think Logan Paul has done such a good job of that like he's like one of my idols when it comes to just

like taking something that was like he was strictly just entertainment based to where now he's like an educator and people like respect what he says and that's what I love about like this podcast is like it gives us a platform to show people that were more than just what you see and like I want to continue to just be better at that even though I'm getting dumber every day you know but like I I want people I want people to listen to what I say and have a reason for them to listen

to what I say. And as they continue to listen, we get better at saying those things. 100%. Just like, yeah, just like refining like the parts of me that I see need work and then just like doubling down on it. You know, and I think everyone's doing a really good job

at that. Like you guys are seeing it real time. Like we're constantly evolving and I feel like in the last six months to a year we've really just like turned on the turbo boosters of that and now it's just like rockets blazing we're going forward and it's either like hop on board or get fucking run over yeah that's the that's the good news is i don't think anyone's skeptical now but you know that you're watching your favorite YouTuber and you're

always like i hope they keep going that's you know that's most people's goal with us or with anyone's just like i just hope they keep uploading and that is absolutely our goal if i were to quit see boys tomorrow i don't foresee a world of not being some sort of an entertainer either you know like i don't think i could just go and work like a normal job or like a normal startup company granted i'm like very entrepreneurial where i know that i could go and start my own business tomorrow and be successful and honestly probably make more money than we are right now an interesting point you know being if there's just one thing and you just like create a business right there's so many things we talk about it all the time there's

so many ways to make a lot of money right now it's a cash grab right now it's a cash grab for sure and like i don't doubt in my mind for a second if i wanted to do that i could but like i just see so much potential in youtube as a whole like it's only it's only getting bigger and you only see more and more people wanting to become YouTubers you know it's like the best job ever why wouldn't why would you not so like i don't foresee it anywhere in my near future wanting to stop doing that granted it's a lot of work it sucks sometimes sometimes yeah no I shouldn't say it sucks I should say it's like it's stressful it's a lot of work and it's stressful but like at the end of the day what job isn't you got to choose your hard yeah you got to choose your hard you got choose your challenges

and like there's so much potential in just what we're doing and I'm like so confident in us honestly I'm like so confident that we're going to be um some of the most successful people that we know yeah well damn i don't think any of us can articulate anything better than that that was incredible thanks that's awesome what a great hot seat that was fun thanks ben that was amazing well thanks for having me we got a meeting in 15 minutes speaking of expanding the the crew so as far as workers go shit boys thanks for letting me uh thanks for let me chat about myself for a while absolutely love you bro love love love you two boys See you.

All right. See you. Peace.