Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #355 - VidCon 2016

Episode Date: August 5, 2016

Mark talks about VidCon, where he chaperoned his daughter Rachel, and the lessons he learned from it.

I'm pulling on my parking space. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. And I had to drop off my son at camp today. Okay, so today, I had interesting experiences last week that I was going to share today on my podcast. I'm used to fandom. Obviously, I work on a game that has a lot of fans and definitely has lots of followers. Over the years, I've been to many conventions.

I go to game conventions all the time. But this last week, I actually went... My daughter wanted to go to a convention. And one of the things we do with our kids is we sort of, during the course of the year, there's opportunities they can earn to sort of, you know, as they do well as students and stuff. And so the big sort of prize for my daughter this year was a trip to VidCon. So for those that don't know, let me explain what VidCon is.

VidCon, which I assume the vid is short for video, basically it is for YouTubers, for people that do, I mean, I guess not just YouTube, but do videos, sort of professional video makers. Um, and both my daughters, both Rachel and Sarah are very, very into, to YouTube and vloggers and the whole world. Um, and it's a world that I know very little about. Um, I know my, I know my daughters are both really into it. And I mean, obviously,

it's especially among their generation. It's huge. And so what happened was there's a guy named Hank Green and a guy named John Green, the brothers. John Green is an author also, Fault in Our Stars and Paper Town. And they've made a few movies on his book. But his books are very popular, especially among kids my daughter's age. And the two of them do a lot of video stuff, and they started VidCon six years ago. So this year was the seventh annual VidCon, and much like how San Diego Comic-Con happened, it just keeps getting bigger. I believe there were something like 30,000 attendees or something crazy like that. So anyway, I chaperoned my daughter. I went with my daughter to VidCon. So this last week, I was at VidCon. The reason I want to talk about it today and the reason why I'm talking about it on a magic

podcast is it was really eye-opening and sometimes you learn a lot when you sort of get a stand from as an outsider. Like, I'm very familiar with fandom. I'm very familiar with conventions. But it's always been in something that I was really invested in. I was really involved in. And for the first time, I kind of got to be an outsider.

I kind of got to see it about something that I was, I did not know. I was not invested in. And so the way it worked was, and this was a reward for my daughter, my daughter Rachel, my older daughter. So basically, I was a shepherd in. And so the way it worked was, and this was a reward for my daughter, my daughter Rachel, my older daughter. So basically, I was a chaperone.

I said to Rachel, okay, whatever you want to do, I'm going with you because I'm chaperoning, but you pick the schedule. You know, the schedule was completely at her. You know, she picked what panels to see, what meeting greets and all this stuff. She picked what she wanted to do. And so kind of what I want

to do today is I want to talk through my experience at VidCon, but through the filter of what I learned sort of how to do my job better. Sort of as somebody who, you know, it's very funny because like I met a lot of sort of VidCon celebrities and I'm a celebrity, but in a very different world, you know, in a gaming world. So it was very interesting to sort of... Anyway, so I'm going to walk through what my experience is. You learn more than you ever want to know about VidCon. And I'm going to sort of...

Hopefully it's just an insight. Anyway, it's going to be a very different topic. And having just done it, it's on my mind. So I'm going to walk through. And then I'm going to interject and talk about things I've learned. There's a lot of takeaways I had from this. So I'm going to share some of my takeaways with you. Okay, so first off, so Rachel, we signed up, I don't know, months ago.

And we were lucky to get a hotel right literally like across the street from VidCon, right there. And so the first thing we had to do is, I have what they call meet and greets. So what a meet and greet was is, it used to be they would have an opportunity for you to meet with these people. And what a meet and greet is, is there's a line and you come up, you say hello to them, maybe give them a hug. You have, I don't know, 15, 30 seconds of conversation with them. You take a picture. Usually it's a professional picture. You get a little card and you can get it off the internet. And then you're done. Move on. And what happened originally was

these meet and greets used to be open to anybody who wanted to do it. And it was just chaos. People would line up hours and hours and hours early for a chance to meet with their favorites. So what they changed to is they did this thing where you can put in ahead of time your top, I don't know how, Rachel did this, but top five, top ten, like people you'd most like to do meet and greets with. And then what they do is they try to get you as, like, Rachel, for example, got her number one and then got her number three or four.

So they try to line up. So each person gets two or three meet and greets. Oh, real quickly, let me back up a little further. When you sign up, there's a couple different things you can do. You can sign up as a community member. That means I'm a fan of this.

You can sign up as a creator, which means I make this or I wish to make this. Or You can sign up as a creator, which means I make this or I wish to make this. Or you can sign up as industry. And the way it worked at the convention was there was three layers. The first layer was the community layer. And that had the expo hall

and that had a lot of, those were all sorts of panels and meetings and stuff where you could, the Q&As, where you had a chance to meet the people that you wanted. I mean, not a meeting green, which we'll get in a second, where literally you shake their hand, talk to them for two seconds.

But you could get in an auditorium and kind of like panels that I've done, although they didn't do a lot of visuals at their panels. They mostly just talked. But anyway, so we had, so during the course of the week, I'll talk about some of this. So we would go to a bunch of different panels we wanted to see. There's an expo hall, I'll get to that too.

The second floor was the creator floor. And that was all about people giving panels about how do you become a creator? So it was a lot of creators giving tips and explaining things. So the first floor was like fan base. Hey, fans of me. The second floor was like, okay, we're going to talk about how to do this. Do you want to make your own videos? Let's talk about how to do that. And the third floor was industry, which was talking about the business side of it. One of the things about it is YouTube sort of started as a very open-ended sort of like just people kind of goofing around.

And it's slowly become big, big business. Like I said, I had a chance to talk with some of the sort of the video stars, if you will. And it's interesting talking with them about how there's so much business behind it. There's so much of like, how do I stay in the public eye? How do I make videos that people care about? And, you know, if you get enough hits, there's a means by which you can get paid. Anyway, it's very complex. But the third floor was industry.

That was the business thing. So depending on what you were, if you were red badge, that was community. You can be on the first floor, but you couldn't go to the second or third floor. If you were purple badge, you can go to the first or second floor, but you couldn't go to the third floor. And if you were industry, you can go to the first or second floor, but you couldn't go to the third floor. And if you were industry, you can go to the first, second, or third floor. But as I would find out later, there also was one other badge. But anyway. Okay, so the first thing we did is we signed up for the meeting greets. And the idea was, originally

the meeting greets would just be, hey, it's such and such a time, you can meet so and so. And it just got so crazy. People were lining up so early that they went to this lottery system. And the nice thing about the lottery system was it guaranteed that everybody got to meet somebody. And since you put in the people you were interested in meeting, they tried real hard to sort of make sure that people got some of their high picks. And also, all of your picks were from people you listed. So anybody you had a chance to meet was someone you said you wanted to meet. So Rachel,

oh, and since I also bought a ticket, I was allowed to sign up for meeting greets as well. But the way it worked was as her chaperone, I was allowed to give her my meeting greets and then I got a little chaperone badge so that I could go with her.

So one of the first things about this that was very interesting was this was a convention very much geared to the idea that a lot of the people who would be at it would be teenagers. Most of the normal conventions I go to, that's not true. I mean, not that there's never teenagers

at a gaming convention, but actually the majority of people at a Gen Con, for example, are adults, not kids. Where this show was filled to the brim with teenage girls and some teenage boys, more teenage girls. So anyway, and so what would happen is you show up, you get in line, you're allowed to line up an hour early.

There's a two-hour window by which you do the meet and greets. Because Rachel was using my meet and greets, two of them, we had two people the exact same time. So Rachel would go early so that she could meet the first person and then get to the second person in time before it ended. And so she met with, let's see, the Smosh crew and the Smosh Games crew and Rosanna Pentino and Brizzy Voices and the Hillywood. Most of you are listening, you have no idea what I'm talking about.

You're like, what? But these are celebrities. These are famous people in the Hillywood. Most of you are listening. You have no idea what I'm talking about. You're like, what? But these are celebrities. These are famous people in the world of video. She was very excited. And then not only this. Anyway, so the meet and greets. I'm getting ahead of myself. So the meet and greets was, like I said, she would wait in line.

Usually she'd wait in line. We would get there early. So we tended to be 15 to 30 minute wait for the first person but then she'd have if there was a second person to see

she'd have to get to the end of that line and that would take a bit longer a lot this convention like a lot of conventions is a lot of sitting in line for those that were online

during this I answered a lot of questions on my blog because I was just sitting there so I just answered a lot of blog questions so like normally during the week when I'm working, I mean, I answer a few, but not to the volume that, you know, when I'm sitting around for hours, I just answered a lot,

a lot of questions. Some of you might know I was at VidCon because I answered so many questions during that three-day period. So first thing I learned from the meet and greets was it was very interesting to see the fans interacting with the stars, if you will. For example, Rachel got 30 seconds. Everybody got 30 seconds. It was not very long. Basically, you've got

to say hi, maybe say your name, maybe give them a hug. Rachel would pick one thing she wanted to say to them and say her one thing, and they'd get the picture. And it was over and done very fast. But that was really impactful for Rachel. The fact that these are people that she's obviously only watched on videos. The fact that she actually got to meet them was a huge deal for her.

And one of the things that really spoke to me is how, I mean, I, in general, for those who don't know, I try when interacting with the public, like, it reminded me that every time I meet somebody, you know, that this is somebody who is eager, I mean, some were eager

than others, but usually someone wants to meet me. It's like, okay, I'm within the magic realm. I'm a celebrity and people want to meet me and they're excited. It's very interesting watching the line of people meet them and that each person who met them, that was their opportunity to meet them. That was their 30 seconds to meet them. One of the things they did a great job of is they were just excited. They stood there for two hours. For two hours. Hey, how you doing there for two hours, for two hours.

Hey, how you doing? Hey, let's take a picture. They had to be upbeat energy, and, you know, it was a lot of work, but they did it. And one of the things I realized is it's important. When you meet your fans,

it's important, you know, that every fan, you know, they don't get tons of time meeting you, and that little snip of time really is a big deal. And so, I mean, they don't get tons of time meeting you. And that little snip of time really is a big deal. And so, I mean, I have always made it an effort that whenever I meet fans, like I said, at work, whenever I can, the receptions will let me know when people are there. I mean, sometimes I'm in meetings and I can't.

But when I can, I bop up, I'll say a quick hello, take pictures and stuff. I take it as a very serious responsibility that one of my roles in what I do is, hey, people are excited to meet me. For some people, they've been watching me do this for a long time. I've been doing it for 20 years. In fact, there was a really nice moment I'll get to eventually, but one of the things we did is Jimmy Wong, who you might know from the Eldritch Moon video. So he's a magic player.

He does, one of his videos is all about doing Commander. And anyway, I met Jimmy during the videos we did. He interviewed me in the first video. In fact, he and I made a fun, I don't know if you've seen it, but we did a little promo for the videos where I was supposed to show him a preview card and he was supposed to react to the preview card. And we were, none of it was planned, right? None of it was, it just sort of was improv. And so I show it to him and his reaction is he starts swearing about how excited he is by the card. And so in reaction,

he was supposed to ask me if he could keep it, and I was supposed to tell him no. But I was getting into it, so I swore too, and they bleeped it out. But anyway, he had no idea I was going to do that. So if you watch the video, his reaction is really very funny, because he had no idea. I did not let on I was going to do what I did.

And so he really reacted. It was funny. So it's a fun video. If you've never seen. It was funny. It's such a fun video. If you've never seen it, go online. It's a little preview video for the Eldritch Moon videos. Anyway, I met Jimmy there. And so Jimmy obviously is one of the video starters. VidCon, this is Jimmy's thing.

So I let him know I was coming. We met up. Rachel and I met up with him. He was a host for us. It was wonderful. And one of the places he took us, I got a chance to meet some of the other creators and it's funny, there's one person I didn't know this person was. For all I know, this is

like a giant star. I just don't know all the video stuff. And he walked in and he saw me and had this weird look on his face and he came over and he said, he goes, look, I've been playing Magic since 1993. He goes, can I hug you? Can I hug? And he's like,

he did not expect to see me there because I was very out of my element, but he was really excited to see me. It was interesting, by the way, at the show that mostly no one knew who I was because that's not my audience. You know, this is not tons of teenage girls playing Magic. But every once in a while,

someone would recognize me, and it's funny, more creators recognize me than audience, just because the creators tend to be a little older and more likely to be in gaming and stuff, interestingly. So, um, anyway, it really, the watching

the meet and greets really, to me, was impactful in that like, trying to remember that every time you meet a fan, that that is the moment the fan gets to meet you. That is, it might be your, you know, 18,000th fan meeting, but to them, it's the very first time it's happened. And try to remember that, to keep upbeat and try to make sure that every meet I can do is special. and try to make sure that every meet I can do is special and that I, it really sort of reinvigorated me to say how just watching person after person after person, you know, greet these, be greeted by them

and how each person was so excited. I mean, so excited to meet them. Probably more excited than people are to meet me because we're talking like just teenage girls. Like this is, I don't know. I mean, anyway. But so my takeaway from the meeting reach is the importance of the fan interaction.

And that, like I say, I don't get to travel tons just because of my family. But when I do, you know, I don't want to shy away from the fan interaction. I want to make sure that every fan who'd like to meet me has a chance to meet me. So, and by the way, if you ever meet, I say this before I talk to this on the Celebr who would like to meet me has a chance to meet me. And, by the way, I say this before I talk to this on the Celebrity Podcast.

If you ever see me, please say hello. I never have a problem saying hello. The only thing I say if I'm with my family, I obviously respect the fact that, I mean, don't sit and chat for 20 minutes,

but I love having interactions with people. I love saying hello. You know, Rachel was really shy when she would see celebrities that she wanted to talk to. The thing I would say to her is, look, go up to them and say, I love what you do. Anybody who's a fan creator

go, thank you, that's very nice. I'm glad, you know, that hearing your audience appreciates what you do is just something that's really, look, it feels good. As someone who is a content creator, it feels good. You want to is a content creator, it feels good. You want to tell me you love what I do? That will always feel good to me.

And I'm always happy to hear, I'm also happy to hear criticism. I'm not, it doesn't always have to be positive. If you want to say, why did you do something that I didn't like? I'm happy to do that too.

But I do like the fan interaction. You see me, do that. So the other thing that we did is we went to a bunch of panels. Let's see, we saw John Cozart and we saw Jackax Films, and people that I have no idea. I mean, I've since learned who they are.

I didn't know at the time who they are. And it was very interesting, sort of. Basically, their fans would all show up in a room, and then they would ask questions. And it's funny, because this year, same year, Comic-Con, I'm doing that. It's just me. It's not a whole panel. It's become a blog talk live. It's like me in it all, and it's funny because this year's San Diego Comic Con I'm doing that it's just me, it's not a whole panel

it's become a blog talk live it's like me in it all and it's answering questions from the audience I mean I answer questions all the time so I felt equipped to do it but it's a little different it's sort of one on one and watching these people do the one on one stuff

it was very interesting I mean it was neat sort of being on the other side of seeing somebody else answering questions These people do the one-on-one stuff. It was very interesting. I mean, it was neat sort of being on the other side of seeing somebody else answering questions. And like one of the things that's very interesting is one of your job ads when you answer questions is, especially like online, I get to pick the questions I answer. But when you're live, people are lined up. Whatever question gets asked, you're going to answer that question.

And one of the tricky things when you're live, people are lined up. Whatever question gets asked, you're going to answer that question. And one of the tricky things when you're live is, look, your role in a position like that, I mean, you want to be educational, but you also want to be entertaining. Yeah, I want to be informative. I want to give people information. But more so than anything else, I want to be entertaining. I want to give people a fun time. And one of the things that's interesting is making sure that no matter what question gets asked of you, that you find a way to make that fun.

I do a lot of training for media interviews and stuff. And one of the big things they do there is talk about how you need to stay on message even when the questions after you aren't of that message. Essentially, the idea is, what if somebody asked you a question that's sort of a boring question, how do you make an exciting answer? And you have to do that in media questions. Sometimes, the media questions you get are not, you know,

you sort of have to twist to sort of go, oh, well, let me involve some neat things in that answer, so that even though the question wasn't a particularly strong question, I can get a strong answer from it. And watching these people do this live when they were answering questions was very interesting to see. And

there was a nice bond. Once again, watching my daughter interact. So we would go to these panels and these are people my daughter idolizes. She would dress up. Every panel we'd go to, she would have a shirt that was like that person. She would have merchandise from that person that she had

gotten for Hanukkah or Christmas or something. You know, and like, I didn't even realize it at first that she, because she kept changing her outfits, and I'm like, oh, she is dressing for the thing she's going to see. And, you know, she, anyway, it was very illuminating

of the connectivity of the fans. On some level, it's weird. On some level, I know it on magic. I know, you know, when I interact with people, I can tell when they're, you know, wearing things that are related to magic and stuff. But the thing I never thought about is how, oh, now if I come to think about it, how often the person I'm interacting with is wearing a magic thing, which they probably very purposely wore because they were going to a magic thing, you know, or they were, I don't know how often they expect to meet

me, but, you know, like sometimes people come to Wizards. Anyway, it's very interesting that, like, I never really thought about that, but watching my daughter, like, she went way over way to sort of match up with the thing that she was seeing. So I found those really interesting. Another thing we did is we went to a Dan and Phil

fan meetup. So what this is is Dan and Phil weren't there. Dan and Phil were nowhere to be seen. What it was was fans of Dan and Phil if you don't know who Dan and Phil are, they're big video stars. Fans get together. So it's just the fans getting together.

And all they did was play some games and then talk with each other about how much they love Dan and Phil. Dan and Phil are these, they're British. I've never even watched the videos, but I know they're British. And it's funny. I know more about them by watching their fans. Like, they do something where they have a little kitty cat face. Everyone has their kitty cat face, and one of them wears this, like,

bear hat, because a lot of them had this bear hat on. So, anyway. I know more about, like, some of the fan stuff I watch the fans do. But it was interesting. Like, these fans got together, and, like, the people weren't even there. It was just sort of this fun fan get-together. And it was

really interesting to see how excited, like, I think sometimes when you, it's nice to step back and see the trees of, you know, people really, really get into the thing they get into, whatever it is. And that, you know, one of the things I always try to remember is,

you know, look, I'm, part of what I do is I make an experience and I make a game and I'm trying to bring happiness to the world and that people... People really need their escape. They really need to have their passions

and that when people choose to get into something, they can really get into it. And I know that about Magic. I mean, obviously, you know, I'm dealing with the most enfranchised of players most of the time. But it is fun to see that passion out of something that I literally knew nothing about.

I knew nothing about... I mean, I might have... I bought a t-shirt of Dan and Phil for Rachel, so I guess I knew about them from me interacting with a merchandise they bought for my daughter, but I'd never watched the videos. Most of the stuff I'd seen, I kind of learned who they were. But anyway, it was very intriguing to see that.

It's just the meet-up, the passion of the fan. Sometimes when you get so down deep into it, when you sort of step back and have some perspective, and you realize sort of how excited the fans get. I kind of know that. I mean, I definitely interact

with lots of Magic fans, but it was a good learning moment of realizing that, like, this is something that people really invest in and that

one of the reasons I do take the time and energy on social media that I do is I want to interact with as many fans as I can. And I literally have modeled my blog so that I can answer as many questions as possible. You know, I purposely do short, quick answers so that I can answer more people.

Because one of the things I learned a while back is how exciting it is for people when I answer their question that it really is that the same kind of thing where Rachel like Rachel had a chance to ask a question of uh Jack from Jack's Films or John I think it's his name but um and like that was a really important moment that she had this bonding with someone she cared about just like with the headups. And it was so compelling. So another thing that happened is, so we met up with Jimmy, and he was able to introduce us to a few of the creators. And so one of the wonderful things is, and thank you, Jimmy, so much.

It was really sweet of Jimmy. My daughter, for example, got a chance to meet a couple of the people that she had even done meeting greets with, so people that she had met for 30 seconds and shook their hand, you know, that she actually had a chance to meet a couple of the people that she had even done meeting greets with, so people that she had met for 30 seconds and shook their hand, you know, that she actually had a chance to talk with, like, at length.

We actually met Rosanna Pacino, who does Nerdy Nummies. So she does the largest, I think, cooking video show, and her shtick is she does video, I'm sorry, she does cooking things, but with kind of a nerdy, geeky bent to them. So, like, Mario star cookies or...

I think she once did magic cupcakes, I think, in one of her early shows, she said. She and I were talking and she said that they'd actually done an early magic show. But anyway, my daughter had a chance to sort of talk with her and she was really, really sweet. One of the funniest things is everybody's so tall and Roseanne actually was my daughter's height. My daughter's small. If you know me, I'm small too. But actually just having a chance, and once again, thank you, Jimmy, to meet a few

fans face-to-face, a few not fans, a few creators face-to-face, and actually have some nice conversations with them. Like I said, we talked to Rosanna. We also chatted with Brizzy Voices, which is another one Rachel had met. And it was really fun. It was really cool. And one of the things that was neat to me talking to the creators is

it was neat talking to somebody else who, on a completely different vector, like, I'm a creator. I make things. I mean, there's an audience who appreciates what I make. And there was a lot of interesting parallels. Like, you know, what Rosanna Pentino does is very different from what I do, but there's a lot of similarities, you know, that our fans, in some way,

have great appreciation for what we do, and that, you know, it's just... I had some interesting conversations with some creators about sort of interacting with fans, you know, and it was a neat... Like I said, it is neat to talk to somebody that has similar issues but from a completely different vantage point you know the kind of stuff they're doing is just really different um you know i don't make all that many videos i'm not i mean i i do a lot of fan interaction but i'm

not making the content i make is not um well i take take that back. I do some entertainment content. I mean, I do, my blog and my column and this podcast are to a certain extent entertainment. I mean, I like to also be informational, so I think that you learn things, but hopefully, I guess the reason people interact with my stuff is, it's not educational, it is entertaining to them. I mean, I'm hoping this is an entertaining podcast and that people like to listen to it. That's kind of the goal. So it was really interesting interacting

with the fans and interacting with them and sort of seeing the... We share a lot of... There's a lot of sort of like... One of the concerns that all creators have is how do I make something that will make my fans happy? How do I learn what my have is, how do I make something that will make my fans happy?

How do I learn what my fans like? How do I, you know, different people want different things. Like, Rosanna told this really funny story about how the audience wanted a pizza cake. So she made a cake that looked like a pizza. And then the fans were like, you know, that was awesome, but that's not what we wanted. We didn't want a cake that looked like a pizza. We wanted a pizza that looked like a cake, which she did. In fact, my daughter actually made it. I don't know if you guys remember. On my Twitter, I posted a picture of it. It's one of my biggest retweets of the year is my daughter's pizza cake. But it was really

interesting. She was trying to do what the fans said and then realized as a fact, like, oh, she just misunderstood it. And then had to do a second show. You know, after her cake pizza show, she had to do a pizza cake show. So the one last thing, a moment to work. The one last thing that we did is they premiered some movies there. So there's a movie called Nerve starring Emma Roberts and David Franco. And it's based on a book that my daughter had read. A teenage book. And the premise is about a teenage girl who starts playing this game online called Nerve.

And the idea is you're either a watcher or you're a doer. I don't know what the word is. A watcher or a performer or something. And the idea was if you were a watcher, you paid money to watch. But if you were a daretaker, paid money to watch. But if you were a dare-taker, then you got paid money to do dares. And the dares got bigger and bigger and bigger

and you got paid more and more money, but they got more and more dangerous. And the character gets caught up in this. And my daughter read the book, and so this was the world premiere. And Emma Roberts, the star of the film, introduced the film. And there were a bunch of other, you know,

video stars doing introductions and stuff. And anyway, we went to this. And it was a big, big deal for my daughter. We got there really early to get in line, although we were... There's a lot of people in line. Luckily, it was a huge auditorium. But anyway, it was an interesting chance to sort of see preview content, if you will. This was a chance for my daughter.

Something that she knew about, that she was excited by, that was this preview thing that she'd never seen before. And it was really neat to see the sort of part of that preview experience where I knew nothing. I hadn't read the book. I knew nothing. But sort of watching my daughter and watching the reaction. And like after it was all done, she was so excited that she'd been there. And then she had a chance to see something for other people to see it so that she could talk to other people about it. And she got a t-shirt. It was had a chance to see something for other people to see it so that she could talk to other people about it. She got a t-shirt. It was just really interesting to see that experience,

to see how she interacted with preview content. It made me really realize how important preview content is, how exciting it is. I think something, because I've been doing this so long, that sometimes you can get so close to it that you sometimes miss the forest for the trees.

And I mean, on some level, I know people get excited. But I think one of the, watching my daughter, what the trip did is, I think I forgot how excited. I think I forgot how much people get into things and that I, over time, it's like, oh yeah, okay. Like, you forget sometimes. Like, oh yeah, of course people like previews. And then I think watching my daughter and seeing her interact with her favorite fans

and with her stars that she loves and seeing the content and, you know, buying merchandise and seeing previews and doing all these things and watching my daughter interact and just the sheer passion and excitement. Or even just watching how nervous my daughter was, like, she would see a star on the floor that was 30 feet from us, I'm like, okay, go say hi, and she's like, she was really nervous, and she was, and I'm like, it's okay, you can be, like, um, because one of the things is people get really nervous to meet me, and it's sort of funny, because I'm like, no, I won't bite, you know, I, I promise I'll be very sweet, I'm, I'm, I'm very nice,

um, and just watching my daughter, and how nervous she was, and that, I, I promise I'll be very sweet. I'm, I'm, I'm very nice. And just watching my daughter and how nervous she was and that. Anyway, it was interesting. The trip to me was really interesting because it gave me this vantage point and really refreshed me to say, wow, you know, there's a strong fan base. They really care. They're really excited. You know, they're excited to meet me. They're excited for the content. They're excited for the previews. And I think I, I walked away with a really sort of a nice, fresh, like, wow, you know, this is so exciting, it's more exciting than, I think over the time, I kind of forgot how exciting it is, um, and I just came back real fresh of, okay, I'm going to do the best I can, I'm going to do as

much content as I can, I'm going to meet as many fans as I can. You know, that I want to make every fan meet that exciting moment for that fan. I want to make every preview an exciting thing for that fan. When I do my panel, my one-on-one panel at Comic-Con this year, I want to make it exciting for the fans. I want to do something that really gets them excited.

And so I am pumped to try to do the best I can to really, I don't know, I walked away from VidCon saying, okay, I got it I got to see it as an outsider and it really made me appreciate how much passion people have and so I've got refreshed to try to do an even better job than I can

to bring all you guys the best experience possible so anyway, that was my experience VidCon 2016 so hopefully this is a very offbeat podcast I'm curious what you guys think of podcasts like this where I'm just talking a really off topic this is not normal magic but uh I like to mix it up so I'm you know I'm curious on feedback in this particular podcast but anyway I'm now parked in my parking space so we all know what that means this is the end of my drive to work so instead of talking magic and VidCon

it's time for me to make magic I'll see you guys next time bye bye