The Iced Coffee Hour - We Need To Talk

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Most people don't know that we have have a personalized mentorship group that meets with us every single week to ask questions, discuss strategies, or simply network - here you go, enjoy! https://tinyurl.com/yaexko4o   Add us on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jlsselby https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan https://www.instagram.com/alex_nava_p... Official Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeBQ... For sponsorships or business inquiries reach out to: [e-mail] DOWNLOAD MY NEW FINANCIAL APP: https://hungrybull.page.link/graham GET YOUR FREE STOCK WORTH UP TO $1000 ON PUBLIC & SEE MY STOCK TRADES - USE CODE GRAHAM: http://www.public.com/graham  MY NEW COFFEE IS NOW FOR SALE: http://www.bankrollcoffee.com/ Join the 2x weekly mentorship group: https://tinyurl.com/yaexko4o The Equipment used: https://tinyurl.com/y78py5g2 Audio Equipment Used In Podcast: Rode NT1, Rodecaster Pro The YouTube Creator Academy:   Learn EXACTLY how to get your first 1000 subscribers on YouTube, rank videos on the front page of searches, grow your following, and turn that into another income source: https://bit.ly/2STxofv $100 OFF WITH CODE 100OFF  For Podcast Inquiries, please contact [e-mail] *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're starting out strong. I have beef with you because every single time that we start a podcast, you want to correct my shot, okay? What did you hire me to do? Okay? I'm here to help you produce this podcast in the best possible, highest caliber ever. We're the best, we're the number one podcast in the world. Where did this come from?

Okay. Yeah, he's like, yeah. And I'm sick and tired of you. Getting over to my camera over there and saying, Alex, no, it needs to be two millimeters to the left. But it's not good. Okay. Objectively, it's a bad shot, so I have to fix it.

I disagree with it. And the few times where we've let you have full control without doing anything, we look at it and we see him post like, why are we all like yellow? No, no, that was a different story. You can't do that one story out of context. You guys, you guys can't see it because it's always before we hit record on these podcasts. But every single time we'll have a guest right there. Some person we haven't even met yet, usually. And Alex and Graham will be bickering the entire time about one camera angle, that one specifically.

No, sometimes it's this one. Sometimes, but mostly that one. Yeah, mostly, mostly that. that's my beef with you right now look I agree with you it is why we hired you but then again the most important thing is just at the end of the day the angles are set right and if that means that you guys have to bicker a little

bit or maybe Graham has to tweak your angle or you tweak Graham's angle the thing is you get it started Alex he gets it and he perfects it he puts his spice on it yeah you get us 95% of the way that extra 5% I was like I just gotta dude like I gotta move it like that

yeah that's all it is you know what guys welcome back to the ice coffee hour we're happy to have you. Thanks for tuning in. Let me do the intro better. Hold on. Let me read you. You guys see what's going there. I'm here. Go ahead. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, no. I want to see your introgram. That was a joke. Welcome back to the iced coffee hour. We got a very interesting episode today. We wanted to hop on and talk to you guys about some stuff. Number one, Jack, you wanted to bring this up, and I think we should address it. We should address it to do right by our viewers. So we had the tech lead on our podcast this last Sunday,

and it was met with a lot of criticism. So people were basically saying that we shouldn't have had him on because he's a controversial person. And due to his actions, like people can't respect him and therefore they cannot respect us for bringing him on. And we figured we should just have an open discussion about it to do right by our viewers and not sweep it under the rug and act like it didn't happen. Yeah, there was a part there where we posted it. And we knew that tech lead was controversial to begin with. And even when we were talking about it, tech lead even was like, yeah, I'm controversial. I don't want to get you guys in trouble.

And we told them like, hey, listen, as long as you're okay with us asking you tough questions, I would be okay with it because we could at least address these things. You're controversial for a reason. Can we talk about those reasons? Get to the bottom of it. We wouldn't have had him on had we not been able to discuss that caveat. Yes. And he was open with us.

He's like you could ask us anything you want to. We could record it. And I think, I guess number one, we could have been tougher with our questions. And it's difficult in person because when you see someone in person, I guess I'm nice. I'm like, I don't, like, I try my best to be like confrontational and like to put people on the spot, but like deep down, I'm just friendly. I don't know.

Like, yeah, it's just tough. I'm working on. I'm working on it. But I do think in the future, look, here's the thing. We do this podcast for you guys. We do it for the viewers. And if you want us to bring on sometimes people with opposing viewers, you know, points, people that you don't agree with, controversial people, let us know, and we can continue

doing that on occasion, maybe one out of every 15 episodes. If you don't want that at all and just want us to disassociate with those types of people, we will 100% heed that. It's just whatever the group thinks, obviously there will be people saying yes, there will be people saying no, but whatever, for a vast majority of you guys think, we will 100% do that because at the end of the day, we do the podcast to entertain and educate you guys. Yeah, it is tough because there's that balance between if we have somebody on, we give them exposure. Is that the right person to be giving exposure? And is, you know, even if we present it with, you know, a confrontation, we ask these questions, are those the right questions asked? I think we're still figuring that out.

And we're trying our best, but we also acknowledge that we're not perfect. And it's a learning process for us. I want to do my best and speak out more too, because there's a lot of situations. First of all, I love debating. I'll sometimes disagree with people just to, debate. Like my camera angle sounds. You know, but I was right in that case. But, you know, and sometimes I feel like you guys always tell me this off camera, like, Alex, if you have something to say, butt in?

Like, I never do because sometimes I feel like, you know, I'll kind of stop the flow. But I feel like I also have to do a better job of that too, because every time that I've butted heads with somebody, I feel like it's been good. Yeah. And who doesn't like to see, like you guys said, who doesn't like see? A healthy argument is fantastic. Yeah, who doesn't like to see opposing viewpoints? And I think it gives people more to choose from. Or more, you know, mental food.

And one thing for certain, if we do bring on a controversial guest, we are usually, we are always aware that they are controversial. We can do it right by you guys to make sure that we do ask the hardball questions, the actual, the, and confront them. You know what we could do would be better? You could add me on Instagram. Now, I don't want some more with this. You add me on Instagram at GP Stefan, okay?

when we are having somebody on the podcast, we could open up the discussion and have you guys ask the questions. I would love that. So that way it's like, hey, we're having so and so on, what do you want to ask?

Yeah. Also, read off this question. Add me on Instagram because I want more followers and more clout at JLSS, SELBY. That brings me to a good example.

So thank you guys so much for watching. That's it. That's the Ice Coffee Hour. And underscore photography, I need a better handle. But yeah, Great point, Graham. Yeah.

So that's it. We just figured we would address it to do right by you guys and not sweep it under the rug and act like it didn't happen. It was very challenging podcast for us to film. And we hope that you guys appreciate the transparency and honesty. Yeah. Speaking of transparency and honesty, Jack, got a new assistant that you got to. Yes. You got a new assistant?

Yes. You replaced me? No. So, you know, people. There's more people than I do. I said. It's so weird. So I currently have two contractors.

working for me. He's very specific about that word. It is true. As per law, like you can look at the agreement that we have. They're able to, you know, anyways,

that's into the weeks. So I have a personal assistant, his name is JJ, and I recently hired him, and he's been helping me out with a lot of the house stuff that's been going on. A lot of production for the videos,

just random stuff that comes up where I feel like it takes my mind off of the things where I should be spending my energy. Productions for what videos? Productions for my videos. And also sometimes the ice coffee are or stuff like that you posted in like three months two videos actually in four months But also yeah, I think that it's great and you know he gets experience and I get experience managing someone and it's been really good

He's you know, for example. I am you know this, but I have an Airbnb at my house now I don't actually I should should I be saying this publicly because I don't know if I Should I be saying? Yeah, you should I don't know if I want people just say it all right So I think I don't always charge more I I mean, that's true. People start bucking it. You just start charging it. Jack, honestly, you may want to like, keep this in it.

But if you charge up the wazoo. It's like $500 a night. Why not? If someone wants to pay you $500 a night to come and hang out of that. You know, bring a Tinder date into the pool with you. Yeah. I mean, that's it. I rent out a room on Airbnb.

It's funny because it's the downstairs room, which actually it had a lock on the outside. So you could lock people. into the room. That was the creepiest thing. Jack told me about this. I'm like, you gotta remove the locks. So why did anybody build

one of those locks into a house to begin with? That's a great question. I don't have the answer to that. Is it till they punish their goods? I think it might be because it's actually it's an actual lock. I mean, I'll throw up a photo right now

of that lock, but it's crazy with a chain and everything. So I had to remove that before I started renting it out on Airbnb. I've had three guests stay. It's actually very lucrative. I set my price fairly high. What was your price?

Yeah, what are you charging? So initially, I was charging, I think it was like $75 a night plus a $15 cleaning fee. Funny, cleaning fees on Airbnb's. By the way, first of all, just from the start. It's just from, it's just one room, by the way. Yeah, it's one room. And to sign up for Airbnb is one of the easiest things I think I've ever done in

my entire life. So they have like an application process. But really, all the application process is is you just submit five photos of your, you know, whatever dwelling it is. And, and that's it. They approve you basically immediately. And then you can basically, you can literally just have people going in there and you have a full-fledged business from there on. You also tack on a cleaning fee on top of the base rate

that you assign per night. And the cleaning fee is shown different, obviously in the listing. It's like base rate plus cleaning fee and then, you know, service fee. And that's like what Airbnb takes. But the cleaning fee just literally gets rolled into your profit. So you can set whatever cleaning fee you want. You could do a $50 per night, you know, room rental. And then you could do a $100 cleaning fee on top of that. It's just like, it's just advertising. How do they break down that fee? Like, do they take a certain percentage of the cleaning fee? Like, can you make, you know, like the old shipping eBay trick back in the day? No, I'm sure that the cleaning.

You keep 100% of the clean fee, but you split that like $10. That's a great question, but I'm sure it's, it's probably the same. They're probably wise enough for that. But yeah, my cleaning fee is $15. Are you the one cleaning? J.J. is. Oh, so does he get the $15? So, JJ, I just pay him based per project.

So he cleans up after the Airbnb. But it's been great. I've had three guests so far. they've all been really nice and it's profitable it's incredibly profitable. I put it up for like $300 a night. What if I rented out my office?

Can I rent out a couch? Can I put that on Airbnb? I think so. Yeah, probably. So you need to select what type of residence or dwelling it is and like I think the smallest you can go is like a private room in a residence but you might be able to do a couch maybe.

Well, technically I could have that be a private room. I just won't go in there, but then I can't get work done. Yeah. You know. But it's been great. It's incredibly profitable. So if you have a house and you have an extra room, Airbnb is a fantastic way to not have people staying in there 24-7. You could select four, five nights a month if you just want a little bit of side income.

The application process is incredibly easy and it's very easy. One other thing, Jack, I want to ask you, you were talking a while ago about walking 100 or was it, it was 300 miles. You wanted to walk in Las Vegas to Los Angeles. It was at Los Angeles, Las Vegas, 300 miles. And I talked you down from that. One hundred miles, and you did it. And I did it. But you had not posted a video about it.

The issue was that it's seven hours of raw footage. And also it's raw footage of a video that I've never edited anything like this before. Because it's like an in real life type thing where you have to like use all of these generators and all this stuff. And I also hired out an editor because I realized it's honestly it's beyond me. Like I could edit it. But I just, it would take so much time. That's it. I mean, the walk was, it was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Physically, it was definitely the hardest thing I've ever done. My feet were completely blistered. I'm still not completely healed from that. Like on my heels, there's still skin like peeling off. And that was two months ago. Yes, certainly. Yeah, it was worth it. I would edit the video yourself.

Because you know the exciting points. To hire an editor to go through seven hours of footage and pick what they think is exciting. I would know. The thing is, though, I got him to chop it down from seven hours to like 40 minutes. And then from there, I'm going to have a lot more control. I just wanted the daunting task of looking at a seven-hour timeline and then bringing that down to like 40, 45 minutes. And I told him to be very conservative with what he cuts out.

And then from there, I'm very hands-on. Hey, do this edit right here. Do this edit right here. This is what I wanted to look like and he just gets it done. I think what would make you a better videographer would be for you to edit it. Because I'm not a videographer. You're filming YouTube videos. You're filming a videographer to a degree.

Because here's the thing. When I first shot weddings, I came home with like so many images. And I learned that I was overshooting. If you took the time to go through that edit yourself and you learn, okay, why did I film that? That was kind of pointless. This was good. Then you would learn what not to waste your time on. I've edited plenty of YouTube videos.

I've edited probably over 200. But you yourself said that you've never edited something like this. That's true. And I did try to edit it. But every single time I was just overwhelmed by a seven hour time limit. I'm like, you know what? So you're going to quit every time it gets a little hard jack? Come.

Dude, I walked for six days, a hundred miles. Yeah, you walked 100 miles, man. You can't handle it. It was also really challenging looking through those seven hours of like something that I, it was six days of my time. You know what I mean? And like rewatching all of that, like, remembering all the feeling that I had and like the distress and that I don't know how hard it was. It was difficult as well. What do you do today, Jack?

I'm curious. Me today? Yeah, what do you do? Okay. Minute by minute, Jack. Yeah. Like, what time you wake up. I woke up so late today.

I woke up today, probably 930. Okay. I got up late. And then I had coffee. I played probably three games of ping pong with my housemate. And then I went upstairs and I, uh, I edited, uh, I started editing my next video. And then also after that, uh, I had a call with someone that lasted probably 30 or so minutes about our TikTok strategy because we're now posting TikToks of the iced coffee hour. And also I had a meeting with my accountant after that.

I worked out after that. I played a little bit more ping pong after that. And I think I probably spent like 20 or 15 minutes thinking about different topics for this podcast. So we got an hour. We got under an hour work done for like the business itself. Yeah, I would say. But I still have stuff to do later tonight because I have to review the episode that's going up tomorrow for the Graham Steffin Show. Okay.

Two hours. Yeah. Oh, so I reviewed a script for the ice coffee hour sponsor. Okay. Yeah, two and a half. Yeah. So what's your, what's your problem with that? Just, uh, I'm curious what would happen if you, if you gave it four hours.

You know, four hours during the week. How much, how much we can improve? Four hours doing. Second channel, iced coffee are. But it's the one thing, you've, you've never done this. And I keep asking, send, oh, you know what you did? Steve, the Steve will do at House Tour. You sent me the Steve.

That was a good idea. That was a good video. The problem is, Graham, passed these two. The reason why it's been hard for me to be. stay motivated to be completely honest and transparent. And something I've been realizing lately is because I'm at a point right now where since I have hired stuff out, it's very easy to just maintain. And any work that I do on top of what I'm doing right now, it's extremely like diminished utility.

Like there's honestly, it wouldn't do a lot. It's like, yeah, maybe I'll pick out a few other second channel videos to do. Maybe like, like the sponsors are already completely filled out. I have someone that writes the scripts. I check the scripts. We film the scripts. We get those up. We have a podcast episode.

I make sure of that. I have a huge list of people that we have to reach out to, or that we did reach out to. Honestly, there's not much more. I have to review second channel videos after they get, that takes a little bit of time. But I think it frees up your mind to think of bigger ideas now. I agree.

Because you've got the everything else taken care of. What's the next step? I agree. Bigger ideas. And I think the bigger idea is we need to put shorts on this channel. I think the TikToks are good. But that's exactly what I did today. That's exactly what I did today.

Better shorts. So it's like, we have not posted a short on this channel though. Yeah, I know. But that's also because I'm, waiting for a really good one to be posted on the TikTok, which actually got posted today. No, yesterday, if you haven't noticed, a million views. Oh, we need to post more of those.

I know. That's why that was another reason for the meeting. How many Michael Reeves we have in the pipeline? I told them that I want a lot more. Yeah. So that was what I told them today. I agree. To think that I'm just taking it, like, oh, you know, like,

a lot of ping pong. It's a lot of ping pong. Graham's like, all I'm trying to say is that's a lot of ping pong. It's better ping pong than wasting my time away on TikTok or watching like pointless YouTube videos. Okay, points of YouTube videos could be great because it gives you ideas for other videos to react to. Like Patrick C.C.

No, no, no, that's why it's on his channel. Oh, so much. No, no, no, no. That's why I said, quote, unquote, pointless YouTube videos. Okay. YouTube videos is great. Watching YouTube is great, but pointless, like satisfying video compilation. That's not going to get me.

I wouldn't click that. That's why I said pointless. But why would you even click that? The one videos that I've been clicking on is bad is the car accidents videos. Oh, no. The car accidents compilations. And it's one of those things

where I clicked on one just out of morbid curiosity. And they're not like, you know, gruesome car accidents or anything. It's like the ones where you like see a car and there's, you know, the guy's not paying attention and like, you know,

stuff like that. They're doing stupid stuff. It's nothing gruesome. But anyway, you click on one of those and you constantly get the recommended. They're like eight minutes long and it's just those are the time wasted.

I get nothing from those. I also feel. like you don't need to, I'm not in the same mindset as Graham, like that you need to work 24-7. I'm not saying that you shouldn't add more work, but I think that you're a different, you have a different approach to life.

I agree to a certain extent. It's like there were periods of time in my life where my life was work. For example, when I was living in Santa Monica and I didn't really hang out with people. They were, but the thing is, things are completely different now than they were in Santa Monica.

In Santa Monica, like I said, I was structuring out every single podcast. I was editing every single second. That's like when I first started here too. So it's like to compare those times to now where it's like things are cash flowing. Like they're successful businesses now. And for to expect me to continue like it's not like my actionable like things I can do will actually make as much of an impact as they could in Santa Monica. And I think that demotivates me. So I'm trying to find something where I can like go all in on.

And here's the thing. It doesn't make me happy to be. Feel like I'm not necessarily needed in these things because I've built up these systems to automate them like JJ like Andrew who who edits for me. It's like it. It doesn't make me happy knowing that at the end of the day I look back and I'm like well, what did I do? I reviewed it video. Oh, I filmed some scripts with with Alex and made this amount of money. It's not that great. I don't like it. Why did you stop the vlog? I just got tired of it. I just got tired of it. I just got sick of filming it. I got sick of having to be like here's my one day. I just got tired of it. I just got sick of having to be like here's my one day. I just got to be like here's my one day. I. I just got to be. I. I just. I just. I don't know. off my one afternoon, oh, we got to film the vlog and force ourselves to do something. That's why I got. No, no, no. But you originally were like, no, we don't have to do anything special. It could just be whatever I'm doing that day.

True. And for an entire month, they did three a week with whatever I was doing that day. And he did so well. That's because it was new. If you do anything different. The videos did just as well. The videos were doing just as well three weeks into doing three videos a week. I think it was getting very repetitive.

I would the views say otherwise. I mean, the views are just as good. Jack, what do you think? I wasn't as interested in those videos. I do think that there were more views because it was new. And I think that people liked just the consistency in their schedule, that they know that they can tune in three times a week to something where they just put it on in the background and, you know, listen to it.

But I was much more excited for the vlogs when there was more stuff going on. And when we actually went out of our way to do something for the vlog, I think that those were better vlogs. And I stopped watching Grahamstuff and After Hours when you were doing. three times a week. I just wouldn't watch it. It's funny. I felt the opposite. I felt I hated the vlogs and you were doing stuff. I thought it was fun to go to the Grand Canyon and do the stuff. I hate it filming it. It's just like it took me out of the moment to be like, oh, I got to be on camera. It's just could not enjoy myself. I do feel that too. Because I, I mean, obviously I was on

camera too, but yeah. Guys, what could I do better? Be honest. Please. I think, like, your, your perspective when it comes to like giving us your opinion on something sometimes i'm worried that you try to tell us what we want to hear and when you go against us you do it to show that you can go against us i disagree with that go ahead uh no i agree with jack in the first part i don't know quite what you meant about showing us that you can go against i thought the speaking up thing is a is a good one that's that's a good suggestion um Alex you've gotten a lot better in being time efficient the editing

the last few videos that Alex is edited I would say almost perfect I mean I was as perfect as you could get them showing it to me like obviously we watch it

and we're like oh we could cut this out otherwise the video is perfect so I can't I can't get you on editing because the editing is you got that down let's address Jack's point I guess well quick I don't understand what you mean

because I'm very outspoken about my opinion and with everything. So I'm surprised that you think that because if I truly don't like something, I'm very honest about it, regardless of who cares. I'm surprised that you think that. It's just something, I don't know. Sometimes, like, I have experiences in the past where, like, we'll show you something.

And then you'll go against it immediately because you want to provide some sort of, like, contrarian perspective. But then maybe Graham and I will actually think that it's, like, very good and we'll, like, reason with you. and then like a flip of a switch, you're like, oh, you know, actually it's good. So that's it. You know, like, maybe that isn't the case. But for me, I remember in the beginning, it was a little challenging for me to honestly

provide Graham with some honest feedback sometimes because, you know, I really respected Graham and I don't want to think of him to think poorly of me. But it was really just through the growth of like being friends with Graham that made it a lot easy. I agree. Becoming friends with Graham makes it a lot easier to communicate. It's so weird. because if you like if I envision myself having conversations with you

six months ago versus now it's like so different now Alex talks back to me sometimes but sometimes it's fun it's fun sometimes Alice would be like I don't have time for that that's what that's what that's not first of all that's not that's not talking back that's me being honest with you there were sometimes where I think there's one time where I knew you were editing a millennial money podcast and our agreement was like you could do the millennial podcast as long as it doesn't interfere with the main channel, everything else, because that's like, that's the priority. And when I asked Alex to get the, like, I checked and like, can you get this done, but also

the same quality for the main channel the next day. And I said, I don't know if I have time for that. I'm like, I'd rather you not tell me and just do it. Because you do have time. You'll find time. There is time. And he's like, well, I'd rather just be honest with you. I'm like, you don't have to be honest.

Yeah, I was trying to, I was trying to be transparent. Yeah, I'm like, no, it's better than you know what it turns out. And I came in and Grim's fine. That was good. It was good video. I was like, thanks. A mindset. I'm like, don't, there's, there's, you don't tell me that just mentally you could think,

how am I going to get this? It'll be fine. Yeah, I will agree with, uh, with that point where I do have a really weird mindset. And I think, uh, I've been trying to kind of, you know, think a little bit differently, um, just because I think sometimes I can be hesitant about things. And I think that sometimes you pushing me like that helps. So, I'll keep pushing. Graham's good at pushing.

I will say that's one of his strengths. as a boss he's very good at pushing you but one thing just to just to really you know take it home is that I think that for you Graham you need to outsource you are wasting so much time and losing so much money doing the things that you do and for you to tell me that what I've done now to put myself in a position of having to work as few hours as I do is a bad thing I would I could not disagree more I think it's a fantastic thing and although it is difficult like I said for me when I'm lying in bed, like thinking, what did I do today? And I'm bummed out because I didn't do a lot.

It's like I still now have, like I want to do a lot more. And I know that like this free time that I have spurs a lot of creativity, which I think is really important. At this point, it's not about the actions that you do, but it's about the decisions and choices that you make. It doesn't have anything to do with your actions. I hear a lot of buzzwords, Jack. Alex Formose is, uh,

that's Alex Ramosey. It's not about those little tasks that you do. It's about the decisions. that you make when you're heading this big of a business and still for you to be spending as much time as you do on the things that you're spending your time on it's a complete waste of time and I think you're losing a lot of money I don't know I take pride in those things like doing the thumbnails so are you doing it for pride or are you doing it because you think it's a smart financial or business thing to do both do it for pride and also I I think the thumbnails the planning obviously no one can replace me

filming so I think those things I have a competitive edge because I'm in it so much and because it's my thing and it's my creation and it's like for my what I've seen being immersed in it, I think you can't replicate that to the same degree. Yes, you can. You can do it better. You don't want to replicate it. You can do it way better. Why don't you take over the thumbnail for the podcast?

Because it's the exact same thing every single time. And I don't even have a background. Okay, you don't have the background. Well, also, I do all the other stuff on the podcast. So it makes sense that you don't handle the podcast. Why don't you do the title thumbnail then podcast? Because I do the other things. It's a joint effort.

Let me talk to you guys. Let me talk to you guys through a dilemma I'm having. Maybe you guys can give me some guidance here. So for the last, I had a conversation with Graham maybe two months ago. And I was like, Graham, what can I focus on? And he said, Alex, you just got to get the edits down. And I took that to heart, even though it took like two or three conversations with Graham. I'm not going to lie.

But I think I finally, like, I'm at a place where I'm like, okay, like I'm harnessing. I got it to him. But now I'm looking at what I'm doing. and I feel like there's no scalability in what I'm doing. What do you think? Is that for me or Jack? Both of you. Probably asked Jack because we've talked about this so often.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, editing three main channel videos, there's no scalability. And I told Graham, when I first did this, I was like, I don't mind doing this for a while. You know, it could be a year, could be two years, could be whatever. But I don't see a scalability on this. And now I'm thinking to myself, well, what do I do? I think, and I don't know if I'm going straight here. You guys, yeah, I want your honest advice as, you know, friends and as business people,

I could focus my hours that outside of editing because I can't outsource my editing. Graham doesn't like it and, you know, it doesn't make sense. No. Why? Don't give them ideas. No. If I were you, I would find someone else that can do an even better job. No, I would tell Graham.

You'd have to. No, and not tell Graham until... No, that's the thing. I would find someone that can do the exact same edits at a cheaper price. You oversee that. You take the spread. But then Graham can just hire them directly. It's not getting watered down.

It's the same product. It's the same exact final result. Someone could even do it better than Alex. And that's the thing. You were not a believer. You said that you should be editing your main channel videos until the end of time. And then you hired Alex and it was hard. I remember it was hard when you were training Alex.

But now, think about the time that you have. It's taken six months to get Alex to the point where you could edit a full video where there's no real revision. You're also due to your particular person. I know, but I'm not going to let that slide. I'm not going to let anything. Of course. But now is it worth it?

Yes. I would say, sometimes I don't find myself any more productive. Is there anything wrong with that? I'm spending more time planning. But it's also more challenging. Is it better? Your plans? It's hard to say because there's less going on in the market. So I need to be, I need to put double the effort.

planning videos when there's nothing going on. A year ago, this was easy when every day there was a new event, new event, new event. Yeah, but you have a bigger ROI on your time spent planning versus time spent editing. True. So I think it was a great decision. And you didn't believe it at first. And I was telling you over and over and over again. The benefits sometimes is that when I do plan, I zone out.

It's like that is because now there's no zone out. Time flies like that. Yeah, yeah. I can't like finish filming and then be like, all right, back to planning. There's that like three hour space for sometimes when I'm, edit, mind just goes away and you kind of get in that creative zone and bang out a video. And then afterwards, you're like, ah, it feels good. But there's always a solution.

To every problem, there's a solution. And you can find some other way to spend that time. Yeah, but you really wanted. Yeah. No, like, I'm not even joking. Like, I'm using it as a metaphor. I know. The reef tank.

I have to tinker with the reef tank. If you wanted to, you can spend that time doing something else. You found a solution to that problem. A new, a new problem came up, but you can find a solution to that and it will only get better. It's hard because what I'm doing is working so well. it's working. I mean, when you look objectively, it worked. So what if it works well, if you want, with your logic with what I'm doing, it can always work better, right? And I'm using your own logic that used it on me.

Guys, let's circle back around. Back to me. Yeah. You know, so now I'm looking at the time outside of editing. What do you want to do, Alex? Do you tell us? So, no, so that's what I'm looking at. And I don't want to spread myself. I feel like maybe a month ago, I was, I had all these ideas, but I feel like if I do too much. I'm going to spread myself too thin. So I don't want to, because I was like, well,

I could scale if I start shooting weddings again and stuff and I do all this stuff. I could, I could do that and I could scale that. But then I'm like, yeah, but then, you know, I'm going to have to edit during the week, which is fine. I just want more control over it. So I'm like, what can I do outside of my editing time that is actually scalable? Because let's be honest, the stuff that I'm doing for Graham, I cannot scale that income. I can do other things for you to scale the income. I would agree with that. But what do you guys think my time is the best spent doing? I could make, you know, I told Graham I wanted to make it like a photography course. He was kind of iffy on that. I could do, I could do more content that I like to make for myself. I mean, I could I could do my

wedding business and not run, not do the actual events myself. I could outsource that. But it sounds like the question you should be asking yourself because you talked about YouTube it's like are you it's and it's not like you were doing that for that's more of a passion exactly so do you want to allocate your extra time towards a passion or do you want to allocate it towards something where you can scale your income that's the thing it's like exactly so i think you have to yeah Alex no you can't choose both you could start up the reef tank and make reef content so easy to do film for like 30 minutes i'm not going to let you go after i found out okay so guys i'm getting a reef Bank breaking news.

With gambling. So I went out. Yeah, I went out and I gambled with Graham and Jack. They lost their money. Technically, I lost half of my money with them. And then on the way out to the car, I just couldn't help myself. I was itching. I'm just kidding.

No, I decided to do the irresponsible thing. I don't condone gambling. Irresponsibly. And I put down money and I turned it basically within two days. I turned it into about $1,300 to. So instead of going and re-gambling that money, I'm going to take it and I'm getting a reef aquaer. I'd get the reef tank, vlog it. And so- People love reef content.

People don't know, but I grew up with a reef aquarium in my living room. It was like Andrews, our friend Andrew, it was just in our living room. It was huge. And my parents hated it, but me and my brother loved it. So the thing that baffles me is the fact that you just consistently win it. gambling. I know. How much have you made in profit? Because you have a spreadsheet. Yes, I have a spreadsheet. My net my net profit including these gambling winnings is $3,900. Wow. 39 in one year. I mean, wait, if the IRS is watching, I mean, I lost $39. I would just, yeah, I'd quit while

you're ahead, spend that towards the reef tank. There's the next like a year. Yeah, because do you guys remember the first few months I was here? I was basically living rent free. Yeah. Because we weren't gambling. like every night. It's only like a podcast guest. It's not poker. You're playing roulette. And you're playing roulette. And you're playing blackjack. No, I'm playing blackjack. Still, it's not, it's not a game of skill because you don't know how to count cards. No, it's all purely luck. Like in the long term, if I continue playing, statistically, I will lose money. And so quitting Lama Head, getting the Reef Tank, you know, putting it in my house. Honestly, if it were

me, I would never gamble again for the rest of your life, put it towards the Reef Tank, have a great time, blog it. Yeah. Well, what about, okay. So, so, You gave me a good idea of her passion. Flog my reef tank, vlog, you know, vlog the learning process, or,

you know, the learning process, document that. But what about the scalability of my income? What would... How much you, you told me in the very beginning,

you just want to make 60, 70 grand. He was like, that's all I need to do. No, that's not what I said. What do you say? What do you say? That's not what I said.

80 grand? No. You, you don't call what I said. No. I said, honestly, I was like,

I'm not sure exactly how much I want to make, but off the top of my, head I said I've seen a lot of research that like the threshold for diminishing returns is like a hundred grand no it's not it's 70 yeah it's like 70 you told me that all you wanted to get a certain amount and anything over that you're like I'm just happy with that yeah that was yeah that was like 90 grand yeah exactly no it was less it was less it was less than that yeah no it was not I guarantee you guys both wait wait okay okay let's cut back into the

oh wait we can finish this if you want But that regardless of that, right, I still want to build something that's scalable. Alex, you, no, because we even talked about this on the Alex for a Mosy podcast. You want a certain amount of money. You said, after that, that's all I want, and that would make me happy. You've hit that amount. Let's not confuse that. I am happy.

Yes. I am not unhappy. But you've reached that point with a schedule now that is extremely flexible where you've got it down. You want to get this to muscle memory where it's just like you, you, you know, You don't even have to think you're doing it. It's done. But you've hit that amount. So now the question becomes, how much more money do you want to make?

Is it about the money or is it about doing something that you enjoy? You know what? I think at this point, you've got to do something you enjoy. I think that's a great. You'll make 20 grand more and then you'll be like, how can I make more money? I think that's a great perspective. Coming from. Yeah, I was like, wait, wait, coming from.

Be honest with you. No, but the phrasing was right because it's doing something you enjoy. I know. So many different opportunities to make more money. and I think at the end of the day, it's just, what do you want to do? Pick that and do it. What opportunity to be given me to me?

The second channel, when I was just like, Alex, twice a week, it's going to take two to three times a week vlogging. The Clips channel, we got to post more on the clips channel. You cannot,

you cannot hold me back for the vlog thing because I've told you about going specific directions, trying things. I was so restricted. Robert Duckies in the pool. Dude, try it. No, no, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.

I'm not going to do it. But you never let me have, like, a freedom of that. We have between the thumbnails, between some of the things that we've done. There's a lot of things. I would say no. I would say no. I mean, like, I added my own style to it. But at the end of the day, the stuff that we were doing.

Trivia. The thing is, you guys are arguing on different planes. You're talking about creativeness and you're talking about money. So, like, yeah, you were your creativity. product we could, yeah. I know, but your creativity was stunted on the podcast for sure because Graham wouldn't like certain things. Yeah. Sorry, the vlog, yeah.

But you could still made way more money had you found sponsors for every single episode and stuff like that. So, look, I think what I said still holds true is that you just need to figure out, do you want to spend your time doing a passion or do you want to spend it trying to find something where you can increase your income? Yeah, so that's where I don't. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to make more money. I want to make sure. I agree. And we're not accusing you of saying, oh, you know, it's not. It doesn't matter.

But you have to figure it out for yourself. More money or passion. If it were me, pick the passion, do the reef tank with the block. Once a week in the block. I don't think I wouldn't spend more than three hours on a block. Honestly, three hours a week, reef tank content, pursue the passion. I think that I didn't realize I was at a point where I think I'm in a position where I think a lot of people don't ever get. and that's to be able to do something that they're passionate about.

And I feel like maybe I've been taking that for granted. Yes, enjoy it. Yeah. Does that make sense? It does. Yeah. That was a good talk. No, I appreciate that.

So exciting news. We got a new intern here. Harvey, you want to come on in? Come all the way from London. Thank you, Alex. All the way from the UK. Thank you guys. Everything, everything you say is sounds just very fancy.

Yeah, you sound smart, man. To me, it doesn't seem like I have an accent. Does it sound like we have an accent? accents to you? Very strong, yeah. Very strong. We have a very strong accent. Very strong.

What if we talk in your accent? So to me, to you, do you, does that mean, do you think I have a really strong accent? Very strong. But it sounds good. It sounds like... Your voice booms, man. It does. People always say American people think English accents are like something crazy.

It's crazy, yeah. Anyway, welcome. So how about this? Tell us, tell the viewers a little bit about yourself. Just a background. My name is Harvey Heggs. I'm 17. I'm the new, an upcoming finance YouTuber.

But Graham's giving me an opportunity, and I'm here on the podcast. You literally, the best podcast in the world. Yeah, you flew 10, 11 hours to fly down here for three days. Now, here's how crazy it is. You sent me a camea request. Yes, that's right.

It was seven months ago, six months ago. Just saying, hey, I want you to appear on my channel for like five minutes, for an interview. And I don't know if I even responded to you. And I think you messaged again. I don't think I responded. And then I think I said like, hey, sorry, I'm not interested. Like, I appreciate the consistency because you kept responding.

You just kept on me, kept on me. Like, would send like, might be a view, Jack. And that's, and that's like some of it that. Actually, I wonder if I could pull it up here. Yeah, you could see all the messages. I think it was like $20, $26 at the beginning to send you a message. Yeah, so, yeah, you did a cameo, $4.99. No, actually, no, no, because I turned on free messaging right after that.

messages because I didn't want you to do it because I knew it was a no and I was like I just want you to pay for this but anyway uh July 31st August 17th September 7th October 25th October 29th November 4th November 5th November 25th December 27th you just kept going kept going and then after a while I'm like you would not quit and I'm like well we got to give him something to do so I'm like to talk to Jack just give it to Jack something like if you want to do something, just get, have Jack give you something to do. But you just, we're so persistent. And I forget what it was, but eventually I called you.

I think you're just like, I just want to call or something like that and see what else I could do. It's like, okay, fine. Called you. You're so enthusiastic. And I was like, Jack, you just give him some more to do. But anyway, you would, you would not quit. You would not go away. And so after a while, I'm like, oh, and this is where you started getting persistent about, like,

I just want to come. I got like spring break coming up. For a week, I just want to work. I'll do anything you need to. I just want to work. And I don't know. We're going to have the time.

And honestly, I didn't know when we're going to have the time. It's because it's so last minute. And you got like an 11 hour flight. And you were so persistent. You're like, how's Monday? I was like, Jack, how's Monday?

And I'm like, all right, fine. Fine. But the persistence. Yeah. Why were you that persistent? Well, to take it all back to the beginning.

I think, I've always been like Finance has never really been my I've never even thought about finance It was always like any bit of money I had Designer clothes And then once it was like I had a bit of money from school for passing my exams

And it was either this like Lacost bag Or and then a video popped up of yours Never seen it I think you're on like a million subscribers at the time Watched a video and it just like Because I've always been interested in money I've done like the typical

We used to sit on the front and do sales of things in the fridge and stuff like that. So money's always been a thing, but the money I've got, I've just spent, I've never really invested, that was never really a thing for me. I came across your video, and it just triggered something for me.

I said, I've done a bit more research, and then I was just like, I've just got a message this guy, I started my own YouTube thing as a little passion project. Then I was just like, the main guy in the space, see if I can interview him

and just see what it's about, just really went headfirst in the whole thing. Do you ever feel embarrassed? though like sending multiple messages like back to back yes when I send it I'm like jump back like but I just I know how busy you are like how many times you've said you get millions of emails messages so if I send one and leave it it would as you probably know jack you never get through and you'll just skip over it oh it's another one of them so I just keep my name kept coming up just reminding you till Jack then give me a bit of work hopefully done that right and then

a bit more, bit more, bit more, and then here we are now. And it wasn't only that, but also you were commenting on every video. That was really my weight. Yeah, because we see the moment's the first hour and you're like, Graham, I sent you a message. Let me know you got it in the comments. Yeah. Yeah.

It seems embarrassing, but I'm here now with probably the best opportunity I've ever given my life. Just goes to show you guys. Make sure you comment and like, comment on every video. Yeah, DGB, antho is also very. very similar and DGB has been a tremendous help. I know you're watching this, so I want to thank you for everything. But DGB didn't even ask for work.

He was just like commenting on every single video and he got so good with algorithms that he would, without, he would know when a video is not performing well, and he would just automatically comment, I think this title is better. I think this thumbnail is better. He got so good at it, that he was better than Jack and I, estimating how well the video is going to do. He guessed today's video.

What? I don't know. Better than us. No, no. Here's how surprise. He guessed what the video, today's video was ranking in the first, like, three minutes. And he was right. In three minutes.

I can't even tell how it's going to rank it three minutes. But he did it. Three minutes. Like, it blows my mind. And so I brought him on also as like an intern. So basically, you know, I just, I give him a little bit every week just for his help. And he moderates the comments. Like, she's so good.

But it just goes. to show you it's like sometimes that persistence it's just you stand out it's just finding a way to stand out in a way that uh that it just catches someone's attention they're able to see that um why didn't you work for mark tilbury yeah it's got uh it's a good question yeah the the english finance youtube i think at the time when i was saying uh the story that without like trying to suck up to you or anything it was like that emotional connection you know when something so big changes in your mind. I'm not even just saying this. Every money I had was spent elsewhere. So that change was almost like connected to you. Mark Tilby wasn't even like he had that he has had like that massive

growth spurt in like a year didn't he just went off. And at the time Mark Tilby wasn't even like I think he was on like 100 subs maybe 100,000 subs. So you was the main guy in the space. And obviously you said mentioned loads of times before you started off the finance and that way and that's probably when I first found your videos. So looking back at it now, it'd probably been over the last three or four months when Mark Tilby's been big. But I just had my site set on this. Got it.

And why stop now? All right. And we just met like an hour ago, by the way. So that's how like fresh all of this is. What has been your first impression? Like everything. Alex's picking you up from the airport coming up here. Crazy dust storm.

Yeah. So England weather is awful, by the way. way minus is we we have probably one month so getting off the plane that gust of heat and sand in your eyes obviously it's the desert I was like oh god but yeah so on the phone to Alex sorting out where to pit me over at the wrong place and then straight here and straight on a podcast with probably my 22nd hour of the day wow yeah I know and we're about to get sushi it's it's my treat tonight thanks graham thanks graham yeah we're going to go to super sushi in Las Vegas.

They've been hooking it up lately. Super sushi Las Vegas. They're great. We used to go there like twice a week. And then it got to a point we're like, wait, we're eating too much sushi. So, Harvey, what kind of value do you think you can contribute to this entire business? Yeah. So on the way here, I wouldn't say I'm ever going to be able to specialize in one.

Say, I'll say, I'm coming here as an editor. I'm coming here. But what, as you can see, persistence. I'll try anything. I've always been up for anything. And playing sports and things like that. Being able to, any task you give me,

if you teach me the basics and what to do, give me like two weeks a week and I'll start nailing it and get better and better and better. There's never something that I'll probably sit and think, I can't do this. I'm just going to give up. Do you know what I'm saying?

The more I do something, the more I just have to show me the basics and then hopefully build from there. So I'm done for anything. It's funny because I was with my house. housemates before I came onto this podcast. And I was telling them about you because you're, you're staying two nights with me. And they said, why are you doing this? I mean, he's from, you know, a different country. Why, why is he coming out here? And I said, well, you know,

Graham orchestrated a decent amount of, but also for me, reason from messaging me. Like, no, a good reason for me why I, I'm totally fine with it is I, I honestly see a decent amount of myself and you because I didn't have any skills going into this job. Like, there was nothing from that moment that I could have provided. You just motivated. That's all. That's it. Graham could give me any task and I had no regard for my time. I didn't care about it. I'm like, yeah, sure, give me a 20 hour task to do in like, you know, 28 hours and I'll just do it. I don't care. So that's kind of something that I see in you and I respect it. The best thing in this industry is if you're trying to, if you're trying to get into it and you find a mentor, it doesn't matter how much skills you have. It doesn't matter if you're proficient in Final Cut Pro premiere, unless if they're looking for an editor, of course. But there are so many ways that you can provide value just by giving someone your time. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And that's what I tell a lot of people that are trying to get into somewhat similar positions of me. That's what I've said. Sorry, that's what I've always said to you. I've just said, give me the boring, the worst,

the longest stuff. Take that time off your hands because obviously I see the benefit that frees up your time and then what you can do. Coming in with a business mindset, as you say, free up more time for Graham and everything bigger things can come from that. You're going to get a little bit of all of us here

because you'll see, you'll kind of mentor. For Jack, I'm the entrance. Excuse you. Jack on work ethic in 2020. You could watch Jack. You'll watch Alex to see what he does. And then in between that, we could go over things.

Because like for planning, if it's me just sitting in front of it, it's not as good, but like comments, thumbnails, reviewing videos, like that, we could do together. And there'll be some like, you know, we could, you'll help Alex on the podcast stream and stuff like that. But I think it'll be a good experience. You're saying to Jack about watching YouTube videos. and it's a simple task for me to do. Watch videos, send them over to you.

Yeah, oh, good. Yeah, yeah, see, second channel videos. Yeah, Harvey, I'm delegating that to you. I will be outsourcing that and not taking... Yeah, that's... You know the second channel, like you're familiar with it. So, videos that you think will do well from an algorithm standpoint, second channel.

Hopefully just question things and ask a few questions. Yeah. Give a different opinion. And that's fantastic. So what do you think about Graham? Like, I know meeting him in person was probably a lot different than what you thought of, you know, over the internet. Did he exceed your expectations or did he go? Meet or below?

Yeah. Is he like way below it? Above. I got to say that. Good. Okay. Wow. But obviously, you only see what online.

It's like so hard. But obviously just by messaging me back and giving me this opportunity, how can I, ever say a bad word in general just because the opportunity you gave me message in me back giving me the time obviously you're so busy um but yeah well honestly had you not followed up because you were like i want to fly down want to fly down give me a week give me a week give me a week give me a week give me a week and even in all the times where i'm like i don't know i don't know these dates around out of town like just let me fly down let me fly down let me fly down let me get like a thousand messages over and over and then when you're like monday yeah okay

Money it is. It worked. Yeah, I just keep saying it. Put a date in your mind instead of you coming to me. All right. And just see what goes from there. So you're here for three days, four days. What do you want to get from?

What's the one thing that you really want to do? So I do a bit of my own stuff. So obviously asking questions from you, all of you, would be so beneficial to me more than money could ever pay for. So that's obviously something beneficial to me. And hopefully I can show what I can. what I can do and if you see something in me

and then hopefully goes from there just set a good first impression really in the time we have. Looking forward to it. I think we're good. This should be a lot of fun. Go off to Super Sushi, you've got to be exhausted and hungry. First task, Black card.

First for Black card. Now, you go and talk to the owner and let's see if we can make that happen. Thank you guys so much for watching. This has been a great midweek episode. I know it's our second one we've ever done. Just let us know what you guys think. People seem to like the first one.

Let us know if we should keep it up. Yeah, if you like it, let us know in the comments section. You could also let us know which stock you get when you sign up for public using the code gram, public.com slash gram. Let us know what stock you get. We'll link to all the information in the description. So anyway, thank you, guys. Thank you, Harvey. Thank you, Alex.

And until next time. Thanks, man. That was sweet.